Crypto markets are under pressure as Bitcoin drops below USD 70k today, down roughly 20% in the first five weeks of 2026 and around 45% off its 2025 all-time high of ~USD 126k. This illustrates the depth of the recent correction, and how volatility in digital assets has been linked to equity market volatility and macro uncertainty.
“The gap between market pricing and underlying fundamentals is increasing. Macro conditions, liquidity dynamics, regulatory progress and institutional adoption remain supportive, but sentiment is extremely beaten and short-term positioning is very one-sided,” says Fabian Dori, Sygnum Chief Investment Officer.
The gap is creating a market in which improving fundamentals, including Bitcoin’s expanding institutional role, are not yet reflected in prices, leaving crypto assets vulnerable to uneven moves.
This disconnect has a number or parallels to the 2022 market – strong risk off sentiment, a flight to established counterparties, and volatility testing the market’s resilience. But the differences between 2022 and 2026 are stark. While 2022 was marked by structural failures like FTX collapse and poor fundamentals, 2026 so far has shown strong fundamentals, with the growing number of institutional investors moving toward regulated institutions offering legal certainty, asset segregation and established compliance and risk management frameworks.
In 2026, investors need to be able to play defence (manage counterparty risks, segregate assets, work with regulated counterparties) and offence (stay liquid, keep powder dry via stable collateral, continuous access) at the same time. In traditional markets, this has been enabled by the strict separation between asset custody and trading.
This is the operating model leveraged since 2024 by Protect, Sygnum’s off exchange custody platform, which enables clients globally to access crypto exchange liquidity while keeping assets in Sygnum’s bank-grade custody in Switzerland.
As a FINMA regulated Swiss bank, client assets are held off-balance sheet, providing ownership rights and bankruptcy-remote asset segregation under Swiss banking law. This mitigates exchange counterparty risk, and at the same time retain exposure to trading opportunities at times of high volatility like the present.
In dynamic market conditions like this, trust, direct personal communication and partnership are paramount. Sygnum’s crypto native Relationship Managers provide the support clients’ need to make critical and timely decisions – be it for Lombard Loans, discretionary mandates through Sygnum Select or complex trades.
Sygnum believes that the future has heritage, and that its innovative platforms and solutions are best built on the time- tested principles of trust, integrity and partnership. In that way, we endeavour for our clients to invest in digital assets with confidence, across different market conditions.
▪️Learn more about Sygnum Protect
▪️Learn more about Sygnum Lombard loans
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