Swiss franc stablecoins

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The Swiss franc stablecoin market has remained small because of the regulatory constraints described above. Three designs have been tried. Bitcoin Suisse's CryptoFranc (XCHF) was issued from 2018 as a bond-like instrument under Swiss law and was later discontinued. Sygnum Bank's DCHF is issued by a licensed bank and is confined to the bank's own customers, which makes it a tokenised deposit. Centi has issued a Swiss franc stablecoin against a bank guarantee under the pre-2024 construction, and must now meet the requirements set out in Guidance 06/2024.¹

Zug perspective

A Zug company that wants to issue a Swiss franc stablecoin in 2026 has four routes. It can become a bank, which is slow and costly. It can obtain a fintech licence under Art. 1b BankA, which caps the supply at CHF 100 million and prohibits paying interest but permits a public stablecoin for payment use. It can partner with a licensed bank that issues the token as a tokenised deposit to the company's onboarded customers. Or it can wait for the Federal Council's payment-instrument-institution category, which was in consultation at the cut-off date. The fintech route is the only one that produces a freely transferable Swiss franc token today, and even it requires the issuer to identify every holder under the AMLA, because the issuer is a financial intermediary. The company should budget for the licence process described in Part E, Chapter XII and for an AML programme sized for a payment business.

Notes

On the individual Swiss franc stablecoins and their regulatory status see Part E, Chapter VII, which also records FINMA's enforcement attention to the guarantee model since 2024. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Of Counsel, KGP Legal LLC

I am Of Counsel with KGP Legal LLC in Singapore, where I work with a global client base of successful entrepreneurs and their families, independent asset managers, commodity trading houses and other commercial clients. I am a German and Swiss attorney-at-law, also admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and in Hong Kong. I divide my time between Zug in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Since 2017 I have advised international clients on more than 700 crypto and digital asset projects. I also have extensive experience in cross-border litigation and arbitration in Singapore, Hong Kong and other markets in South-East Asia and Greater China.

I operate across the key financial centres in South-East Asia, the Middle East and Switzerland, with a particular focus on asset protection, international tax and estate planning, as well as trusts, company administration and other fiduciary services. My philosophy is to serve as a trusted advisor working closely with my clients and to help them achieve their commercial objectives.

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KGP Legal LLC is a medium-sized law firm in Singapore that is capable of providing the full range of legal services and corporate administration work. Please contact me directly at [email protected] if you need any further information.

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SingaporeIQ is edited by Dr Alexander Ressos, an international business lawyer with more than 15 years of local experience in Singapore as a permanent resident, a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and managing partner of a Singapore foreign law practice. In addition to significant experience in cross-border investments and transactions, UHNWI private client work and sanctions/export controls, Dr Ressos has extensive experience in cross-border business and in crypto and digital-asset projects in Singapore, drawn from more than 700 projects since 2017.

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