Nine Swiss institutions start testing a franc stablecoin, capped at a million
SIX and TWINT joined UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, BCV and Swiss Stablecoin AG in a live sandbox for CHFD, a franc token running since June.
Issuer
Swiss Stablecoin AG
The Zurich company behind CHFD, a franc stablecoin issued by its wholly owned CHFD Infrastruktur AG and tested since June 2026 in a sandbox with UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, BCV, SIX and TWINT, with circulation deliberately held under CHF 1m so the Swiss fintech exemption applies.
The profile
Swiss Stablecoin AG was founded in the spring of 2022 by Pascale Bruderer, a former member of both chambers of the Swiss parliament, and its stated aim is a Swiss franc stablecoin anchored in the financial industry and pointed at the real economy rather than at crypto trading. Issuance and redemption run through CHFD Infrastruktur AG, a wholly owned subsidiary, which is affiliated to the VQF, a self-regulatory organisation recognised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, and which meets its anti-money-laundering obligations through an allow-listing design: participating banks perform the ordinary know-your-customer checks on their own clients and register those wallets on the platform, and only registered wallets can receive or transfer CHFD. The architecture is chain-agnostic and the token is at present principally an ERC-20 on Ethereum; banks reach the platform by API or web interface, and the platform runs onboarding, allow-listing, minting and redemption, with defined limits and controls. Minting is fully funded before it happens: the bank makes a request and transfers the francs, and the tokens are minted only after the money arrives. Reserves are held entirely in cash on deposit at a regulated Swiss bank, segregated from the issuer's operating funds, deliberately avoiding market and liquidity risk. The constraint that defines the whole exercise is stated on the company's own site rather than in the joint release: circulation is held below one million francs so that the exemptions of the Swiss fintech sandbox apply and no bank guarantee is required. The company says FINMA was informed of the project in advance and that CHFD Infrastruktur AG submitted a classification enquiry to the authority covering the financial market law applicable to the sandbox phase.
Products and services
- CHFD
- A Swiss franc stablecoin designed to hold a one-to-one peg, technically live in the sandbox since the end of June 2026, principally as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, and fully backed by franc deposits held in cash at a regulated Swiss bank.
- CHFD Infrastruktur AG
- The wholly owned subsidiary that issues and redeems the token and operates the platform. It is affiliated to the VQF, a FINMA-recognised self-regulatory organisation, rather than holding a banking licence of its own.
- Allow-listing
- The control that makes the token a closed system. Participating banks do the know-your-customer work and register client wallets, and the platform will let only registered wallets receive or transfer CHFD.
Coverage
Developments in which Swiss Stablecoin AG is a named party, newest first.
On the record
A Swiss franc stablecoin sandbox starts testing and adds SIX and TWINT
UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, BCV, SIX, TWINT and Swiss Stablecoin AG began testing use cases for CHFD, a franc token technically live since the end of June 2026. Circulation is held below CHF 1m so the Swiss fintech sandbox exemption applies. The test phase runs to the end of 2026 and is not a decision to launch.