- Sygnum Bank forecasts that Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents will drive the next frontier of finance.
- With that, the world’s first regulated digital asset bank has launched live transactions using these programs.
Sygnum Bank’s AI Agent Testing
According to Sygnum, it’s the first Swiss-regulated bank to use an AI agent to test live digital asset market transactions. It occurred while the client retained custody, consent, and control over the entire operation.
During the test, the client issued plain text instructions to execute multi-step live transactions on a blockchain mainnet. Sygnum’s AI agent processed the prompts autonomously, aligning them to specific smart contract functions. Then, the self-custodial wallet on the client’s own device signed the transactions.
The demonstration proved that Sygnum’s AI can complete multi-step on-chain transactions, including transferring stablecoins, swapping digital assets, opening lending positions, token-wrapping, and liquidity provisioning, without clients giving up control over their private keys.
Sygnum AI team utilized its proprietary Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the test. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s Claude powered the platform’s AI system. The MCP-based architecture is model- and asset-class-agnostic, meaning it can scale as the ecosystem evolves.
Connecting AI Agents To Wallets Is Where Finance Is Heading
Thomas Frei, Head of AI and Data Analytics and AI@Sygnum lead at Sygnum Bank, believes humans doing manual transactions will no longer drive the next financial evolution. As early as the next decade, he sees the trend moving toward AI agents managing the entire transaction flow, up to settlements and market interactions.
“Connecting AI agents to wallets is foundational to where finance is heading,” said Frei. “The next decade will see agents transacting, settling, and interacting with markets on behalf of clients.”
“The key challenge is doing this in a way that preserves – and even enhances – bank-grade consent, custody and trust,” the Sygnum official added. “That is what we set out to solve, and what this pilot demonstrates: that a regulated Swiss bank can provide clients with the speed, convenience, and accessibility of agent-driven execution, without ever giving up control of their assets.”
Sygnum’s Approach to AI Agents
Sygnum emphasized that AI agents used to have their own wallets, in which clients had to give up control over their assets or even their keys. However, the new approach gives users complete control, with the bank serving only as a bridge, enhancing their access to live market infrastructure and streamlined workflows.
Furthermore, Sygnum highlighted that its human-led, AI-augmented approach ensures a high level of customer protection in line with regulatory standards.
So far, Sygnum has no definite timeframe for the client-facing version of its MCP AI agent model. After the successful test, its product deployment is still subject to full regulatory, compliance, and security reviews.
