Nikolas Sargeant
Bitget has joined Sygnum Protect, allowing institutional clients to trade on the exchange while holding collateral with the Swiss bank. The integration, announced Thursday, comes less than a week after a cyberattack on crypto infrastructure provider Haruko affected 15 clients and reportedly led to losses at some hedge funds.
How the Custody Arrangement Works
In a press release shared with Cryptowisser, the team stated that under Sygnum Protect, participating institutions place collateral in segregated accounts held off the bank’s balance sheet.
The balances are mirrored on Bitget so clients can use them for trading without keeping the underlying assets on the exchange. Sygnum says the accounts are bankruptcy-remote under Swiss banking law.
Bitget says it serves more than 125 million users. With its addition, Sygnum says exchanges connected to Protect account for more than half of global spot and derivatives trading volume. That figure describes the reach of participating venues; it does not mean half of their trading collateral is held through Protect.
The arrangement addresses a specific risk for institutional traders: leaving substantial collateral on an exchange while maintaining access to its markets. It does not remove every trading or operational risk. Institutions still depend on the systems that authorize trades, connect accounts, and manage access.
Haruko Attack Highlights a Different Weakness
The Haruko incident illustrates why custody is only one part of that picture. According to CoinDesk, attackers exploited a vulnerability in the London firm’s infrastructure and obtained an access token that exposed trading data and details of exchange application programming interfaces. The affected API access was described as read-only, yet people familiar with the incident said a small amount of client funds was stolen. The precise route from the exposed access to those losses has not been established publicly.
Haruko said it fixed the vulnerability and refreshed its server-side secrets. The attack affected 15 clients, according to messages from its chief technology officer reviewed by CoinDesk.
The broader loss data puts the focus on infrastructure. TRM Labs recorded 207 crypto hacks in the first half of 2026, causing $972 million in losses. Infrastructure and operational compromises made up about 15% of incidents but roughly 76% of the money stolen. Those attacks targeted credentials, keys, and signing systems that control assets.
For institutions, Bitget’s integration offers another way to separate trading access from asset custody. The Haruko breach shows why controls around account access and connected services remain consequential even when assets are held elsewhere.
