UBS to Let Select Wealthy Clients Trade Bitcoin and Ethereum, Bloomberg Says Swiss banking giant UBS is preparing to offer crypto trading to a subset of its private-banking clients, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The move would allow eligible clients in Switzerland to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum initially, with a possible later expansion into the Asia‑Pacific region. Why this matters: UBS is the world’s largest wealth manager, with about $4.7 trillion in assets under management as of September, and its product decisions often reflect demand from ultra-high-net-worth clients. The bank’s core business is private banking and advisory services for wealthy individuals and families — not mass retail banking — so any crypto offering would be targeted rather than broadly available. Context and backstory: UBS’s profile rose sharply in 2023 when Swiss authorities pushed through a merger with Credit Suisse after a string of scandals undermined the 167‑year‑old lender. Credit Suisse’s 2021 setbacks included a $5.5 billion loss tied to the collapse of Archegos Capital and a roughly $10 billion hit related to Greensill Capital. The takeover briefly boosted UBS’s assets under management by about $1.5 trillion. Rollout and comment: Sources say UBS is still finalizing how it will roll out crypto access. The bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt. Market snapshot: At the time of reporting, Bitcoin was trading around $90,132 (down nearly 5% over the past week) and Ethereum was near $2,967 (about 10% lower week-over-week), per CoinGecko. Regulatory and regional angle: Switzerland has positioned itself as a relatively crypto-friendly jurisdiction in Europe. The Swiss National Bank quietly increased its Bitcoin exposure in November, and the country drew interest from some U.S. crypto firms after the 2022 closures of Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank. Swiss banks reported an increase in inbound inquiries from U.S. companies looking for banking partners abroad. If confirmed, UBS’s pilot could be an important signal of institutional acceptance of crypto among wealthy private-banking clients, and any wider rollout will be watched closely by the industry. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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