Sygnum opens Ethereum fund targeting 8, 10% annual returns in ETH

What happened

Sygnum, a Swiss digital asset bank, has launched an Ethereum investment fund that seeks annual returns of 8% to 10% in ETH after fees. The bank said the ETH Alpha Fund SP opened on Nov. 2 to qualified and professional investors in approved markets, including Switzerland, and announced the product on Nov. 12. Crypto.news and NewsBTC both reported the launch.

The fund combines native Ethereum staking with options premiums, arbitrage across trading venues and income from derivatives funding or carry strategies. Sygnum Asset Management, part of the bank's Investment Solutions unit, manages the product. Investors receive any gains in ETH rather than in dollars, so their holdings are still affected by changes in Ether's market price.

Sygnum describes the trading components as market-neutral in intent, meaning their returns are not meant to depend primarily on ETH rising. The bank nonetheless states that the fund remains exposed to ETH because its underlying investment is denominated in the asset. The 8%, 10% range is a target after fees, not a promise of results.

The minimum investment is $100,000 or its equivalent in ETH. Subscriptions are monthly with two business days' notice, while redemptions require 15 calendar days' notice and are also monthly. Sygnum's documentation sets an investor-level redemption gate of up to 10%, though NewsBTC noted that the product page does not explain how the gate works.

Why it matters

Sygnum estimates that conventional ETH staking currently produces annual rewards of roughly 2% to 3%. Its new fund is aimed at investors who want to seek a higher return while keeping their exposure to Ethereum, rather than selling the asset. Because performance is measured in ETH, the product speaks to institutions that track their holdings in token terms. Markus Hämmerli, Sygnum's head of asset management and the fund's lead, said: "Institutions that hold ETH for the long term increasingly think in ETH, not dollars." The distinction matters: a rising ETH balance does not shield an investor from a fall in ETH's dollar value.

What the data shows

The fund's terms are aimed at institutional-size tickets. Sygnum lists a $100,000 minimum or the ETH equivalent, monthly subscriptions and monthly redemptions with advance notice. The product carries risks tied to derivatives, staking, liquidity, counterparties and trading systems, and the bank notes that leverage in some strategies can increase losses in volatile markets. NewsBTC offered an arithmetic illustration: an investor starting with 100 ETH and earning an 8% token return would end with 108 ETH; if Ether's dollar price fell 20% over the same period, the position's dollar value would still be 13.6% lower. That example is not a forecast and does not reflect fund performance.

Background

The Ethereum fund follows Sygnum's BTC Alpha Fund, launched in October 2025 with Starboard Digital. That Bitcoin-focused product also targets 8% to 10% a year after fees and combines BTC exposure with arbitrage, according to Crypto.news. Sygnum has also been building out custody arrangements for institutional crypto trading. In March 2025 it added derivatives exchange Deribit to its Sygnum Protect service, and the fund now uses Protect to keep trading collateral at the bank rather than on exchanges. More recently, Sygnum was named as a custody partner for Bitget's off-exchange trading arrangements for institutional clients.

What to watch

Assessing the fund will require looking beyond its headline target. Realised returns, how consistently they are produced and how the strategies behave when market conditions change will be the useful evidence, NewsBTC noted. Comparisons should use the same accounting basis: net returns with net returns, ETH with ETH and equivalent observation periods. The redemption gate and the monthly dealing schedule may also matter to institutions that need liquidity on a different timetable.

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