Sygnum Bank and Debifi introduced MultiSYG on 23 October 2026, a regulated Bitcoin-backed lending product that keeps pledged collateral in a dedicated multi-signature wallet rather than under sole bank custody.
Keys for each client’s Bitcoin are shared among the borrower, Sygnum Bank, and independent institutional keyholders.
The Swiss digital asset banking group and the multi-signature specialist timed the announcement to coincide with the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland’s largest Bitcoin gathering.
Under MultiSYG, every borrower’s Bitcoin sits in its own on-chain wallet.
The required signatures are encoded directly in the wallet’s Bitcoin script, so the network itself rejects any transfer that lacks the stipulated approvals.
Clients can verify at any moment that the collateral remains in place, and loss of one key does not automatically mean loss of the coins; recovery can proceed through the remaining trusted keyholders.
These technical controls sit alongside Swiss banking-law protections: client assets stay off Sygnum’s balance sheet and are bankruptcy-remote, secured by the same institutional infrastructure already used for other Sygnum holdings.
The launch arrives as Bitcoin has become the dominant collateral at the bank.
More than one in five Sygnum clients now hold a Lombard loan, and Bitcoin accounts for over 80 percent of pledged collateral volume—up from 63 percent in 2023, a roughly 30 percent rise.
Demand for liquidity without selling has grown alongside a clearer risk profile for the asset.
One-year volatility has nearly halved from about 80 percent in 2021 to around 40 percent in 2026, lifting Bitcoin’s optimal portfolio weight more than fourfold.
Correlations with technology stocks have also declined while links to gold and overall market depth have strengthened, reinforcing its appeal as collateral and supporting both lending volume and new client onboarding.
Interest in Bitcoin-backed loans, spot and derivatives activity, and products such as the Starboard Sygnum Bitcoin Alpha Fund have all contributed to that momentum.
Iulian Zanoaga, Sygnum’s Deputy Head of Credit & Lending, described MultiSYG as an extension of the bank’s established regulated lending business.
Adding distributed multi-signature security, he said, is a logical next step for holders who want to keep Bitcoin secure while still accessing liquidity.
Pascal Eberle, Chief of Staff and Co-Lead of Bitcoin@Sygnum, framed the product as a distinction between merely offering access to Bitcoin and building services around the asset itself.
Bitcoin pays no yield and is not designed to; it functions as a finite bearer asset comparable to gold.
Holders seek a safe place to keep it and, increasingly, a regulated route to put a portion to work—MultiSYG supplies both.
For Debifi, the launch continues a principle its founder articulated when the partners first brought Bitcoin-backed lending to market in 2025.
Max Kei, founder and CEO, noted that a year earlier he had argued borrowers should not have to trust a custodian blindly.
Subsequent security incidents illustrated the risk: a single leaked seed or weak key has repeatedly been enough to empty a wallet.
MultiSYG ensures that one compromised or lost key is insufficient to move the collateral.
By pairing Bitcoin-native multi-signature mechanics with bank-grade lending terms, the product aims to give clients verifiable control and stronger safeguards inside a regulated Swiss framework.
Banks that adopt technology built directly on Bitcoin’s own infrastructure, the partners argue, can differentiate themselves from those that simply provide access, earning longer-term client trust through reduced single points of failure and transparent, on-chain verification.
