FINMA

AMINA Bank (SEBA): Swiss Crypto Banking

Organisation Overview

AMINA Bank AG (formerly SEBA Bank AG) is a FINMA-licensed digital asset bank headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, providing integrated …

Sygnum Bank: Digital Asset Banking

Organisation Overview

Sygnum Bank AG is a FINMA-licensed digital asset bank headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with a dual presence in Singapore. As one of …

Real-World Asset Tokenisation in Zug: How Switzerland Is Digitising Bonds, Real Estate, and Private Equity

Real-world asset tokenisation — the issuance of traditional financial assets as blockchain-based securities — has a more complete institutional infrastructure in Switzerland than anywhere else on Earth. The Swiss DLT Act created the legal foundation. FINMA-licensed digital asset banks built the issuance and custody layer. SIX Digital Exchange provides the regulated secondary market. Zug is where the theory became practice.

Stablecoins: FINMA Classification, Swiss Legal Treatment, and the Swiss Franc Stablecoin Market

Stablecoins — blockchain tokens designed to maintain a stable value relative to a reference asset — are the most commercially significant intersection of blockchain technology and traditional finance. In Switzerland, FINMA's token classification framework produces a specific and commercially significant outcome: most fiat-backed stablecoins are payment tokens, which means their issuers must navigate Swiss banking law to operate legally. Understanding this framework is essential for anyone building or using stablecoins in Crypto Valley.

Crypto Valley Association: The Trade Body That Organised Zug's Blockchain Ecosystem

The Crypto Valley Association is the trade body that turned Zug's informal blockchain gathering into an institutionally organised ecosystem. Founded in 2017 with 50 members, it now represents 1,000+ organisations and serves as the primary liaison between Switzerland's blockchain sector and its regulators, politicians, and international partners.

Crypto Valley Investment Guide: The Institutional Perspective

For institutional investors — family offices, asset managers, pension funds — accessing Crypto Valley's blockchain ecosystem requires navigating a specific landscape: FINMA-regulated investment vehicles, the distinction between equity and token exposure, the due diligence requirements for Swiss blockchain companies, and the allocation frameworks appropriate for an emerging asset class in a mature regulatory jurisdiction.

DeFi in Switzerland: Crypto Valley's Decentralised Finance Ecosystem

Switzerland's Crypto Valley has produced some of the most technically significant DeFi protocols in existence — not despite its regulatory environment, but partly because of it. The same legal clarity that enabled FINMA-licensed digital asset banks also created the conditions for DeFi protocols to structure their governance and tokenomics with greater confidence than protocols based in regulatory grey areas.

FINMA Crypto Banking Framework: How Switzerland Licences Digital Asset Banks

On August 26, 2019, FINMA simultaneously granted banking and securities dealer licences to Sygnum Bank and AMINA Bank — creating the world's first two fully regulated digital asset banks. That event was the product of a regulatory framework FINMA had been developing since 2014. Understanding that framework is essential for understanding why Switzerland remains the global benchmark for institutional crypto regulation.

ICO (Initial Coin Offering): Definition, History, and Switzerland's Role

The ICO boom of 2017-2018 was the event that put Crypto Valley on the world's financial map. Switzerland — particularly Zug — was the world's leading ICO jurisdiction, processing the largest token sales in history and developing the regulatory framework (FINMA's 2018 ICO guidelines) that became the global template for token regulation.

The Swiss DLT Act: How Switzerland Legalised Tokenised Securities

Switzerland's DLT Act, effective February 1, 2021, created something that had not existed anywhere in the world: a statutory legal framework for securities that exist only on a blockchain. The Act amended eight federal statutes, created a new DLT securities category, reformed insolvency law for crypto assets, and established the DLT trading facility licence. It remains the most comprehensive blockchain-specific legislation in any major financial jurisdiction.

The Zug Foundation Model: How Swiss Stiftungs Power Blockchain Protocols

Every major blockchain protocol that needs a governance foundation makes the same decision: incorporate as a Swiss Stiftung in Zug. Ethereum did it in 2014. Polkadot, Cardano, Tezos, Solana, and NEAR followed. Understanding why requires understanding Swiss foundation law, FINMA's regulatory approach, and the specific advantages that no other jurisdiction can replicate.