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Swiss banking giant UBS planning to offer crypto services to specific clients
UBS will gradually introduce crypto services, starting with select private clients in Switzerland, according to Bloomberg.
Jan 23, 2026, 2:10 p.m.
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What to know:
- UBS, which oversees $6.6 trillion in assets, plans to let select wealthy clients trade bitcoin and ether as part of a broader digital-asset push, according to a Bloomberg report.
- The move reflects rising demand from rich clients and comes as UBS evaluates partners for its crypto offering while monitoring regulation, market trends and risk controls.
UBS (UBS), with $6.6 trillion in assets under management (AUM), plans to start allowing select private clients to buy bitcoin and ether, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The decision to start offering crypto services, according to the story, stems from a growing demand from its wealthy clients.
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“As part of UBS’s digital asset strategy, we actively monitor developments and explore initiatives that reflect client needs, regulatory developments, market trends and robust risk controls," a UBS spokesperson told CoinDesk. “We recognize the importance of distributed ledger technology like blockchain, which underpins digital assets.”
UBS had previously taken a cautious approach to cryptocurrencies but might now be feeling the pressure from its competitors on Wall Street, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, who have expanded their financial services to include digital assets amid the friendlier regulatory regime in Washington, D.C..
In November 2023, UBS made trading in crypto-linked ETFs available to wealthy clients in Hong Kong, joining competitors like HSBC Holdings Plc. Late last year, UBS completed the first onchain redemption of a tokenized fund using Chainlink's Digital Transfer Agent. And with crypto banking specialist Sygnum and PostFinance, a subsidiary company of the state-owned Swiss Post, UBS tested payments between institutions on Ethereum.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
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- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Stablecoins moved $35 trillion last year but only 1% of it was for 'real world' payments
While stablecoins settled around $35 trillion last year, only around 1% of that represented genuine payments like remittances and payroll, a new report found.
What to know:
- Stablecoins processed more than $35 trillion in transactions last year, but only about 1% of that reflected real-world payments, a report by McKinsey and Artemis Analytics found.
- The study estimated that roughly $390 billion in genuine stablecoin payments, such as vendor payments, payrolls, remittances and capital markets settlements.
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