News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
Ledger-based securities and DLT trading facilities have been lawful since 2021, while dedicated stablecoin and crypto-institution licences remain a proposal on which consultation closed in February 2026.
The DLT Act has permitted ledger-based securities and DLT trading facilities since February 1, 2021, with FINMA supervising stablecoin arrangements case by case under banking and anti-money-laundering law. On October 22, 2025 the Federal Council opened a consultation, running to February 2026, on Financial Institutions Act amendments that would create a dedicated Payment Institution licence with exclusive rights to issue fiat-referenced regulated stablecoins and a Crypto Institution licence covering custody and trading. FINMA published Guidance 01/2026 on January 12, 2026 setting out its supervisory expectations for the custody of crypto-based assets, including segregation and bankruptcy-remoteness. In wholesale central bank money, the Swiss National Bank extended Project Helvetia on June 30, 2025 to at least mid-2027 and widened it beyond SIX Digital Exchange to include a link with BX Digital.
| Framework | Status | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT Act) | In force | 1 February 2021 | Creates ledger-based securities in the Code of Obligations and the DLT trading facility licence category in the Financial Market Infrastructure Act. |
| Financial Institutions Act (FinIA/FINIG) amendment creating Payment Institution and Crypto Institution licences | Consultation | 22 October 2025 | Federal Council consultation to February 2026; would reserve issuance of fiat-referenced regulated stablecoins to Payment Institutions and license crypto custody and trading as Crypto Institutions. |
| FINMA Guidance 01/2026 on the custody of crypto-based assets | Guidance | 12 January 2026 | Supervisory expectations on segregation, key management, third-party custody and bankruptcy treatment. |
| FINMA Guidance 06/2024 on stablecoins | Guidance | 26 July 2024 | Sets out risks of bank-guarantee structures used by stablecoin issuers and AML expectations on holder identification. |
| Project Helvetia wholesale CBDC pilot (Swiss National Bank) | In force | 30 June 2025 | Extended on June 30, 2025 to at least mid-2027 and widened from SIX Digital Exchange to include a link with BX Digital via the SIC system. |
| Anti-Money Laundering Act and Ordinance as applied to virtual assets | In force | 1 January 2021 | Financial intermediary duties, travel rule application and a CHF 1,000 threshold for exchange transactions. |
Every development we have evidenced under Switzerland, newest first.
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.
AFC raised CHF 350m of five-year paper at a coupon of 1.4925% on 12 August 2026, admitted for trading on SIX Swiss Exchange and deposited with SIX Digital Exchange, under its US$5bn Global Medium-Term Note Programme. About 90 per cent of demand came from Swiss domestic investors, and it is the first such issue by an African institution.
The Swiss National Bank and SIX Digital Exchange announced a pilot issuing a wholesale central bank digital currency in Swiss francs on SDX's regulated platform, to settle tokenised bond transactions with real value. The pilot ran from December 2023 to June 2024 with six commercial banks participating.
SIX Group issued a CHF 150m five-year bond with a 0.125% coupon, split into a CHF 100m digital tranche listed on SDX Trading and a CHF 50m conventional tranche on SIX Swiss Exchange, with the two parts exchangeable. SIX described it as the first bond issuance with a purely digital tranche in a fully regulated environment; SDX had received exchange and central securities depository licences from FINMA on 10 September 2021.
The Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Electronic Register Technology and its implementing ordinance took full effect, following the Federal Council's decision of 18 June 2021. The remaining provisions created an authorisation category for DLT trading facilities and increased legal certainty over the treatment of registered assets in bankruptcy.
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.
Africa Finance Corporation raised CHF 350m of five-year paper on 12 August, listed on SIX Swiss Exchange and deposited with SIX Digital Exchange under its existing $5bn note programme. About 90 per cent of demand was Swiss domestic.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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