Digital asset banking group Sygnum has launched its ETH Alpha Fund SP for professional investors.
The market-neutral fund aims for annual returns of 8% to 10% in ETH after fees. By comparison, staking alone earns around 2% to 3% a year, according to the company.
Subscriptions opened on 2 November. Qualified and professional investors in approved markets such as Switzerland can access the fund.
Core holdings remain staked with Sygnum, earning protocol rewards. Alongside staking, the fund draws on three further sources of return.
These are options premiums, arbitrage across trading venues, carry and derivatives funding rates.
Managers already running these strategies in other currencies, such as USD, handle them for the fund.
Every profit or loss is realised and reported in ETH. This means investors grow the amount they hold rather than earning dollar yield.
Given the fund is denominated in ETH, investors stay fully exposed to its price. The strategies themselves, however, are market-neutral.
Trading runs through Sygnum Protect, which keeps collateral off-exchange at a regulated bank.
Sygnum Asset Management, a subdivision of the bank’s Investment Solutions department, runs the fund.
According to Sygnum, corporate treasuries and exchange-traded funds are now among the largest ETH stakers.
Staking rewards have become the standard return on institutional holdings.
Long-term investors now aim to grow their positions without selling or taking a view on price.
“Institutions that hold ETH for the long term increasingly think in ETH, not dollars, and judge their year by whether they end it holding more. We built the fund around that measure, adding in-kind income strategies to staking within the safeguards of a regulated structure,”
said Markus Hämmerli, Head of Asset Management at Sygnum.
The launch comes just over a year after the Starboard Sygnum BTC Alpha Fund, which debuted in October 2025.
Sygnum said the new offering meets growing demand for returns earned and paid in digital assets investors already hold.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by Sygnum via its Press Release and ImageFlow via Magnific.
