Banks are walking away from the 'one stablecoin to rule them all' fantasy. Sygnum, UBS, and PostFinance are building tokenized cash networks on public Ethereum infrastructure, not private chains, and they're doing it to let institutional clients swap between stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and money market funds on a single platform.
Thomas Eichenberger, Sygnum's chief strategy officer, put it bluntly: institutional clients are not waiting for any single instrument to prevail. They want tokenized deposits, regulated stablecoins, and tokenized money market funds combined into one interoperable system under a regulatory framework they already trust. That means permissioned settlement, 24/7 cross-border flows, and yield with on-demand liquidity.
Why Institutional Clients Reject a Single Stablecoin Winner
The narrative that one stablecoin—whether euro-pegged or dollar-pegged—will capture all institutional demand is dead. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde argued that euro stablecoins won't fix deeper issues in Europe's financial markets. Sygnum's Eichenberger agrees stablecoins alone can't bridge the gap. Euro stablecoins have always struggled because they're hard to access, lack actual bank backing, and don't connect well with traditional finance.
Instead of waiting for a central bank digital euro, commercial institutions are building their own solutions. The Qivalis consortium—37 of the EU's largest banks—is racing to launch a digital euro before year-end. Sygnum's approach challenges Lagarde's conclusion: rather than rely on a central-bank-issued asset, they're letting the market pick the instruments, all running on the same public infrastructure.
Public-yet-Permissioned Wins Over Private Chains
Most institutional discussions default to private chains for data privacy and counterparty control. Eichenberger says the practical view is shifting. Public-yet-permissioned models—public infrastructure with regulated access control—are where convergence is heading. That blend gives connectivity to the broader on-chain financial system without compromising supervision.
Sygnum partnered with UBS, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, BCV, and Swiss Stablecoin to launch a joint Swiss franc-backed stablecoin testing program earlier this year. Every participant—the companies building it, the cash backing it, and the regulators watching it—lives inside the same country. That's a live example of bank-run token networks on public infrastructure.
Swiss Banks Lead with a Live CHF Stablecoin Trial
The Swiss trial is a blueprint for other jurisdictions. By building on Ethereum with permissioned access controls, these banks get the liquidity and composability of public chains while satisfying regulatory oversight. Institutional clients can move between CHF stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and money market funds without leaving a trusted legal framework.
For everyone watching the tokenization race, the message is clear: the winning infrastructure is not a single instrument or a private chain. It's a public-yet-permissioned network that lets multiple tokenized cash forms coexist. The Swiss trial shows what that looks like when banks, regulators, and cash backing all sit in the same room.
Source: Banking rails are moving past the 'stablecoin winner' narrative: Sygnum
Domain: coindesk.com
Comments load interactively on the live page.