UBS, the world’s largest global wealth manager, is reportedly exploring offering crypto trading to select private banking clients, beginning in Switzerland. Sources familiar with the matter indicate Bitcoin and Ether could be the initial assets available, with a potential expansion to the Asia-Pacific region and the United States in the future. The bank is reportedly in the process of selecting partners to support the offering, though no public confirmation has been issued.
The initiative aligns with UBS’s broader blockchain strategy, which includes tokenization pilots such as the uMINT tokenized US dollar money market fund on Ethereum and Swift-UBS-Chainlink settlement trials.
On the payments front, UBS has collaborated with Ant International to trial tokenized deposits for cross-border treasury flows via its UBS Digital Cash platform in Singapore, enabling real-time liquidity transfers across Alipay+ networks. These experiments suggest the bank is positioning tokenized assets and blockchain rails as complementary infrastructure to traditional banking services.
Institutional and Market Context
UBS’s potential move follows a broader trend among global financial institutions. JPMorgan is already exploring crypto trading for institutional clients, while BlackRock and Fidelity have emerged as major issuers of spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. Vanguard recently reversed its longstanding reluctance and now offers crypto ETFs to clients, marking a shift across Wall Street toward embracing digital assets.
With approximately $4.7 trillion in assets under management as of September 2025, UBS could offer ultra-high-net-worth clients a proprietary on-ramp to crypto markets, strengthening its competitive position among private banks seeking to integrate digital assets into client portfolios.
The move would also reflect regulatory and institutional confidence in managed crypto exposure for select clients, complementing UBS’s ongoing experimentation with blockchain settlement and tokenization in both traditional and digital financial products.
