The association for DAOs
An association acquires legal personality once its intention to exist as a corporate body is expressed in written articles that state its purpose, resources and organisation, with no notarial act and no minimum capital.1 It has members who decide in a general meeting and a committee that manages it.2 Members are not liable for the association's debts unless the articles so provide.3 Those features map onto a DAO closely enough that the association has become the Swiss answer to the question what a DAO is in law. Token holders become members, the general meeting is held on-chain under articles that recognise token-weighted voting and the committee executes what the members decide.
The fit is imperfect in three respects. First, an association must have a non-economic purpose. An association that carries on a commercial business must register in the commercial register and is treated in some respects like a company, while one whose purpose is to make profit for its members is not an association at all.4 A DAO that distributes protocol revenue to token holders is pursuing an economic purpose and should be a company, cooperative or foundation. Second, membership in an association is personal and admission is by decision of the association, whereas tokens change hands freely. The articles must deal with how a transferee becomes a member and how a transferor ceases to be one. Third, anonymity sits uneasily with membership. Swiss AML law does not apply to the association as such, but it does apply to any financial intermediation the association performs. A DAO treasury that pays contributors in tokens may be performing payment services for third parties. Part D, Chapter VII, discusses the alternative characterisation of an unwrapped DAO as a simple partnership with joint and several liability of its members, which is the risk the association wrapper is designed to remove.5
Notes
- CC, SR 210, Art. 60 paras 1 and 2. ↩
- CC, SR 210, Arts 64 to 69. ↩
- CC, SR 210, Art. 75a. ↩
- CC, SR 210, Art. 60 para. 1 (ideal purpose) and Art. 61 para. 2 (associations carrying on a commercial business must register). ↩
- CO, SR 220, Arts 530 and 544 para. 3 (simple partnership; joint and several liability of partners); Federal Council, report on the legal framework for DeFi and DAOs of 2022 (see Part B, Chapter VII). ↩
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.