Banks Hand AI Agents the Wheel On-Chain, Sygnum Goes First

AI agents are moving from advice into the transaction layer of banking, and Sygnum is the latest example. The bank ran live on-chain transactions through an AI agent while clients kept full custody.

The pilot uses the AI@Sygnum team’s in-house Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, powered by Anthropic’s Claude as the underlying AI model. Private keys never leave the client’s device.

Banks Race to Move AI Agents Beyond Advice

Institutions have spent months pushing AI agents from advisory tools toward live transaction execution. The trend now spans regulated banks and digital asset custodians.

Sygnum said it has become the first regulated Swiss bank to deploy an AI agent for live on-chain transactions. Clients submit a plain-language request, and the agent then plans each step, reviews the smart contracts, and flags risks before sending the transaction back for approval. 

Every signature happens on the client’s own device through a self-custodial wallet, so private keys never leave their possession. Use cases include moving stablecoins, asset swaps, on-chain lending, token wrapping, and adding liquidity.

“Connecting AI agents to wallets is foundational to where finance is heading. The next decade will see agents transacting, settling and interacting with markets on behalf of clients,” Thomas Frei, Head of AI and Data Analytics and AI@Sygnum lead at Sygnum Bank, said.

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Sygnum is not alone. Anchorage Digital also introduced Agentic Banking in May, a platform for AI agents to move funds through regulated banking rails.

FIS and Anthropic have also partnered to bring agentic AI to banking, starting with the Financial Crimes AI Agent for anti-money-laundering work.

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