Crypto Market Thrives with Outstanding ETP Performance at SIX Swiss Exchange

Danielle Reischuk: It has been a very successful year for crypto products on SIX Swiss Exchange. We were pleased to have welcomed two new ETP issuers: Issuance.Swiss AG in March and DWS Xtrackers in October. Of the 41 new ETPs listed last year, 25 were crypto-related. If we factor in the structured products offering, this means that at year end, investors could get access to 54 different crypto underlyings and by January 55 – the broadest selection of all regulated exchanges. This enables investors to gain exposure to approximately 90% of the total market capitalization of existing crypto assets through one single regulated venue. By the end of 2024, we had a total of 429 ETP listings, of which 169 were crypto-ETPs. Additionally, the January numbers show a total of 440 ETP listings, with 172 of them being crypto-ETPs, highlighting the rapid growth in this sector.

We were one of the first regulated exchanges worldwide to formulate a clear framework for trading ETPs and structured products based on cryptocurrencies – a pioneering role for which we won an award in 2022.

In April 2024, a new updated Swiss crypto regulation came into force, expanding the universe of eligible crypto underlyings. This had and will continue to have a positive effect on the attractiveness of SIX, both in terms of new issuers and new products.

Rules and standards provide transparency as well as confidence and security and enable scaling. They foster trust of issuers and investors and transparency of the market. By creating a clear framework regarding crypto underlyings early on, SIX was able to perform its role as a leading distribution network for its issuers, which in turn were enabled to meet the needs of investors.

It has indeed: after comparatively low volumes in 2023, we have seen trading turnover reach CHF 4.5 bn in 2024, while the number of trades reached 242,883. This not only exceeds the previous year, but even the totals of the two previous years combined!  We have therefore not yet reached the record levels of 2021, but we are confident that both offer and demand will see further growth.

More than half of the trading turnover is recorded in Bitcoin, at 51.6%, followed by Ethereum with 13.7% and Solana with 12.3%. Together, the three most traded underlyings account for approximately three-quarters of the total trading turnover, aligning with their contribution to the total market capitalization of crypto assets on our exchange.

In terms of investors groups, we can derive some indications from the trading currencies. In 2024, 78% of the total volume were traded in US-Dollars. We attribute this to a growing interest in crypto-based assets by institutional investors.

Our website provides comprehensive overviews of our ETP as well as our structured products offering. We also distribute a monthly Crypto Products Report that provides detailed figures about the development of the segment, including trading activity and trends:  Subscribe for free.

• ETF Explorer
• Crypto Product Reports
• SIX Structured Products