Swiss crypto licence: FINMA application process and capital requirements

Why Switzerland: the "same business, same risks, same rules" approach

Switzerland is the jurisdiction where "what is FINMA?" is answered without a separate crypto carve-out. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is the integrated prudential regulator for banks, securities firms, financial-market infrastructures, insurers, fund managers, and independent asset managers. FINMA applies its published "same business, same risks, same rules" principle to crypto-asset businesses on a technology-neutral basis: if a crypto activity is economically equivalent to a regulated financial-market activity, it falls inside the existing licence perimeter; if it is not, it falls outside and is regulated only for AML purposes through the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

That principle delivers three practical outcomes for a crypto business. First, the licence boundaries are already drafted in detailed statutes with decades of case law. Second, FINMA sets out its practice in published circulars and guidance notices, which gives applicants a predictable body of practice. Third, the DLT Act, in force since 1 August 2021, wrote ledger-based securities, DLT trading venues and the segregation of crypto-assets in bankruptcy into the existing statutes, so tokenised business models have a statutory home rather than a regulatory carve-out. The Federal Council publishes dispatches accompanying each amendment of the financial-market statutes.

Token classification: asset, payment, utility, stablecoin

FINMA classifies tokens by their economic function. The 2018 ICO Guidelines and subsequent Stablecoin Guidance remain the operative framework, published on FINMA's FinTech page. Four categories matter:

• Asset tokens. Tokens that represent assets such as debt or equity claims against the issuer, or share in future company earnings or capital flows. FINMA treats asset tokens as securities under the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA). A public offer, or admission to trading on a trading venue or DLT trading facility, triggers prospectus obligations under the Financial Services Act (FinSA) (Art. 35); dealing in asset tokens can trigger a securities-firm licence.
• Payment tokens. Tokens intended to be used as a means of payment and not linked to any other functionality. Payment tokens do not constitute securities and no securities-law treatment applies; AMLA applies to any intermediation.
• Utility tokens. Tokens intended to provide access to a digital application or service. A pure utility token is not a security. Tokens that have a payment function in addition to utility are treated as payment tokens for AMLA purposes.
• Stablecoins. FINMA analyses each stablecoin by reference to the underlying asset. A stablecoin backed by a single fiat currency with an on-demand redemption right is typically treated as a deposit under the Banking Act, triggering a banking or FinTech licence unless a bank guarantees repayment of the redemption claims (BO Art. 5(3)(f)). A stablecoin backed by a basket of assets can be treated as a collective investment scheme. A stablecoin referencing a commodity can be an asset token.

The classification is fact-sensitive. A no-action style pre-filing with FINMA's FinTech desk is the standard step before capital and licence decisions are made.

Which licence does your business need? The decision tree

The licence a crypto business requires depends on two inputs: the activity performed and the token classification. The working decision tree is:

1. Does the business accept deposits from the public? If yes, Banking Act applies. If deposits exceed CHF 100 million, or deposits bear interest or are on-invested, a full banking licence (BA Art. 1a and Art. 3) is required. If deposits stay under CHF 100 million and are neither interest-bearing nor on-invested, the FinTech licence (BA Art. 1b) is available.
2. Does the business trade securities or asset tokens for own account or for clients? If yes and at a commercial scale, a securities-firm licence under Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) Art. 41 is required.
3. Does the business operate a multilateral trading venue in DLT securities? If yes, the DLT trading venue licence under Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA) Art. 73a applies.
4. Does the business intermediate crypto transfers on a professional basis without accepting deposits or trading securities? If yes, AMLA applies; the business is a financial intermediary under AMLA Art. 2(3) and must join a FINMA-recognised self-regulatory organisation (AMLA Art. 14).
5. Does the business manage client portfolios on a discretionary basis? If the portfolios hold financial instruments such as asset tokens, the FinIA Art. 17 portfolio-manager licence applies; discretionary management of payment tokens alone falls under AMLA and SRO membership.

FINMA licence types comparison

Banking Act: Art. 1a versus Art. 1b

The Banking Act (BA) is the governing statute for deposit-taking. BA Art. 1a defines a bank as a business mainly active in the financial sector that takes more than CHF 100 million in public deposits, takes public deposits or collectively held payment crypto-assets of up to CHF 100 million and invests them or pays interest on them, or refinances itself substantially from several banks to finance an indeterminate number of borrowers. The full banking licence requires the statutory minimum capital of CHF 10 million, fully paid up, a fully operational risk-management and AML framework, executives of good repute who reside where they can actually and responsibly run the business (BA Art. 3(2)(d)), and capital-adequacy reporting under the Capital Adequacy Ordinance.

BA Art. 1b introduced the "FinTech licence" or "banking licence light" in 2019. It permits deposit-taking up to CHF 100 million, subject to two critical restrictions: accepted deposits may not be on-invested and may not bear interest. The minimum capital is CHF 300,000 or 3% of the accepted deposits, whichever is higher. The FinTech licence is the practical home for crypto custodians, payment-services firms, and platform-funding businesses that hold client fiat balances without running a bank balance sheet. On 22 October 2025 the Federal Council opened a consultation on replacing it with two new licences under the Financial Institutions Act, one for payment instrument institutions and one for crypto-institutions; until that reform enters into force, BA Art. 1b remains the operative route.

The CHF 100 million deposit cap on the FinTech licence

The FinTech licence cap is a statutory ceiling. Once total accepted deposits cross CHF 100 million, the business must notify FINMA within 10 days and file an application for a full banking licence within 90 days (BA Art. 1b(6)). FINMA can keep the FinTech regime in place above the cap only in special cases where deposits are neither invested nor interest-bearing and customers are protected by specific arrangements (BA Art. 1b(5)). The "deposit" definition is broad under Swiss banking law: client fiat balances count, except non-interest-bearing balances that serve only to settle client transactions and are settled within 60 days (BO Art. 5(3)(c)); crypto-assets held in collective custody that serve to a significant extent as a means of payment count (BO Art. 5a); crypto-assets attributed to each client individually do not.

The cap creates a hard business-model decision. A crypto platform that intends to scale to retail volumes past CHF 100 million of client fiat is planning for a banking licence from day one and should structure governance, capital, and AML framework to pass directly to a full banking licence under Art. 1a at the threshold crossing. A platform that expects to stay below the cap, or to operate in non-pooled custody models where the cap is not engaged, can remain on Art. 1b indefinitely.

Securities firm licence: FinIA Art. 41

A securities firm under FinIA Art. 41 is an entity that, on a commercial basis, trades securities in its own name for the account of clients; trades securities for its own account on a short-term basis while operating primarily on the financial market and either being a member of a trading venue, operating an organised trading facility or being able to jeopardise the proper functioning of the market; or acts as a market maker. Asset tokens are securities under FMIA. A crypto business that runs a market-making desk in asset tokens, executes tokenised-equity trades in its own name for clients, or operates a principal-trading platform in tokenised securities is a securities firm and needs the Art. 41 licence.

Minimum capital is CHF 1.5 million, fully paid up (FinIO Art. 69). Own-funds, liquidity and risk-diversification requirements apply on top, scaled to the business activity and its risks (FinIA Art. 46). Prudential supervision by FINMA is continuous, with regulatory reporting and an annual regulatory audit by an audit firm licensed by the Federal Audit Oversight Authority.

DLT trading venue: FMIA Art. 73a

The DLT trading venue licence was introduced by the DLT Act, in force since 1 August 2021, as a new category under FMIA Art. 73a–73f. It authorises a multilateral trading facility for DLT securities where professional and retail participants meet. FINMA authorised BX Digital AG as the first Swiss DLT trading venue on 18 March 2025, which confirmed the regime is operational rather than theoretical. Minimum capital is CHF 1 million for a venue that only operates trading and CHF 5 million for a venue that also holds DLT securities in central custody or clears and settles trades (FinMIO Art. 13); small DLT venues start at CHF 500,000 (FinMIO Art. 58n). The venue issues its own rules on the admission of participants and of DLT securities (FMIA Art. 73c and 73d).

SRO membership: the AML-only path

A crypto business that intermediates transfers on a professional basis without taking deposits, without trading securities, and without managing portfolios of financial instruments on a discretionary basis falls outside the prudential licence perimeter. It is still a financial intermediary under AMLA Art. 2(3). It must join a FINMA-recognised self-regulatory organisation (SRO) (AMLA Art. 14); FINMA maintains the list of recognised SROs on its authorisation pages.

SRO membership is the AML route for these businesses. The SRO conducts AML audits, publishes the applicable rulebook, and supervises AML compliance. FINMA audits the SROs. For a Swiss crypto business in exchange, custody-light, or payment-intermediation activity that stays below the deposit-taking threshold, SRO membership alone is sufficient. For a detailed comparison, see the sibling insight on SRO membership versus FINMA prudential supervision.

Innovation Sandbox: BO Art. 6 and the CHF 1 million cap

Banking Ordinance Art. 6(2) creates a regulatory sandbox that permits a business to accept public deposits, or crypto-assets in collective custody, up to CHF 1 million in total without any licence, on three conditions. First, the total stays at or below CHF 1 million. Second, the business does not run an interest-margin business with the funds. Third, depositors are informed in writing, or in another form that can be evidenced by text, before they deposit, that the business is not supervised by FINMA and that deposits are not covered by the Swiss deposit protection scheme. The sandbox is a test perimeter, not a final business model: once the business crosses CHF 1 million, it must notify FINMA within 10 days and file a licence application within 30 days (BO Art. 6(4)).

The sandbox is the correct framework for a pre-product-market-fit crypto startup that wants to test a deposit-taking model with friendly early users. It is the wrong framework for anything at commercial scale.

AML framework and the Travel Rule

Every Swiss crypto business, at every licence level, complies with AMLA. The statute imposes KYC on all counterparties, beneficial-owner identification, ongoing transaction monitoring, and reporting of suspicious transactions to MROS (the Swiss financial intelligence unit). The AMLO-FINMA ordinance, published by FINMA in its legal bases compilation, sets the detailed rules.

The Travel Rule for virtual assets is codified in AMLO-FINMA Art. 10, implementing the FATF Recommendation 16 extension to virtual-asset service providers. Swiss VASPs must transmit originator and beneficiary information alongside any virtual-asset transfer to or from another regulated financial institution. Under FINMA Guidance 02/2019, an institution that cannot exchange this information may transact with an external wallet only if the wallet belongs to its own customer and ownership is proven by suitable technical means; a transfer to or from a third party's external wallet requires the institution first to verify the third party's identity, establish the beneficial owner and prove the third party's ownership of the wallet. AMLO-FINMA Art. 10 has no exception for unregulated wallet providers and no de minimis threshold, which makes the Swiss rule stricter than the FATF standard with its optional USD/EUR 1,000 threshold.

Portfolio manager licence: FinIA Art. 17

A crypto-asset manager that holds discretionary mandates over client portfolios of financial instruments, asset tokens included, needs the FinIA Art. 17 portfolio-manager licence; investment advice without power of disposal does not require it. Minimum capital is CHF 100,000, paid up in cash and maintained at all times (FinIA Art. 22), together with collateral or professional liability insurance. Supervision is delegated to a FINMA-recognised supervisory organisation (AO) rather than direct FINMA prudential supervision, an architecture introduced by FinIA in 2020. A crypto family office that manages only Bitcoin and Ether does not need this licence: payment tokens are not financial instruments under FinSA Art. 3, so the mandate falls outside FinIA Art. 17, while the manager remains a financial intermediary under AMLA Art. 2(3) and must join an SRO. A crypto fund structure (collective investment vehicle) steps beyond Art. 17: the manager needs a FinIA licence as manager of collective assets (Art. 24) or fund management company (Art. 32), and the fund itself is approved under the Collective Investment Schemes Act.

Application timeline and FINMA fees

A realistic timeline for a Swiss crypto licence application, measured from the start of dossier preparation to FINMA decision, is:

• Dossier preparation: 3 to 6 months. Business plan, governance framework, risk-management framework, AML framework, IT and cybersecurity architecture, capital plan, financial projections, shareholder and UBO documentation, fit-and-proper files for every executive and director.
• Pre-filing with FINMA: 4 to 8 weeks. FINMA comments on the dossier at concept stage; many issues are resolved before formal filing.
• Formal application: the complete dossier is filed with FINMA.
• FINMA review: 6 to 12 months for FinTech or portfolio-manager licence; 12 to 24 months for banking licence or DLT trading venue; 8 to 15 months for securities firm.
• Conditional authorisation and go-live: 1 to 3 months after FINMA decision to meet the licence conditions: minimum capital fully paid up, audit firm appointed, operational readiness confirmed.

FINMA fees are charged on a cost-recovery basis under the FINMA Fees and Charges Ordinance. The licence decision costs CHF 10,000 to CHF 100,000 for a bank or securities firm and CHF 2,000 to CHF 20,000 for a portfolio manager; where the ordinance sets no range, as for a DLT trading venue, FINMA bills by time at CHF 100 to CHF 500 per hour. Annual supervisory levies scale with licence type, balance sheet and gross revenue. Licensed businesses also carry the cost of the annual regulatory audit by an audit firm licensed by the Federal Audit Oversight Authority.

Common rejection reasons and pre-application diligence

In licensing practice, the reasons an application is sent back or withdrawn before a decision cluster into four categories:

• Insufficient governance substance. Executives and directors whose CVs do not evidence relevant financial-market experience at the scale being proposed. A crypto founder with strong technical credentials but no regulated-finance track record needs to recruit at least one executive with FINMA-regulated-entity experience before filing.
• Unclear token classification or token architecture. A business that cannot articulate, in writing, why its token is not a security or why its custody model does not constitute deposit-taking will be sent back to re-analyse before the licence is issued.
• AML framework weakness. Transaction-monitoring systems that are not calibrated for crypto typologies, insufficient on-chain analytics integration, absent Travel Rule architecture, or unclear wallet-screening procedures.
• Capital plan thinness. Minimum statutory capital with no going-concern buffer, no cashflow projection that survives a stress scenario, or shareholder funding that cannot be evidenced as clean.

Pre-application diligence therefore focuses on a governance-and-substance readiness review, a token-and-activity legal opinion, an AML-framework gap analysis against AMLO-FINMA Art. 10 and Travel Rule expectations, and a capital-plan stress test. This work is done before the pre-filing, not during it. For context on the parent pillar, see financial licensing; for the adjacent FinTech-licence deep-dive, see the sibling insight on the Swiss FinTech licence and the CHF 100 million deposit cap.

Frequently asked questions