Crypto-assets and digital assets at the border

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Crypto-assets and digital assets pose a conceptual challenge to border control. A person who holds a significant amount of bitcoin or stablecoins on a hardware wallet or in a memorised seed phrase can cross the border carrying value of any size without any physical trace that customs officers could detect. Neither the Swiss cash rules nor Regulation 2018/1672 currently treat crypto-assets and digital assets as cash for the purposes of the declaration duty. The European Union chose to address crypto-assets through the regulation of service providers under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and through the extension of the transfer of funds rules, which require service providers to transmit information about originators and beneficiaries.¹

The border therefore plays a limited role in the control of crypto-assets and digital assets, although it is not irrelevant. A hardware wallet is a physical object that can be found in a search. Customs officers who discover one in the course of a money laundering investigation may seize it as evidence. Some international organisations have discussed whether cross-border declaration regimes should be extended to crypto-assets, but no binding standard has emerged so far. For the moment, enforcement in this field relies on the anti-money laundering obligations of exchanges and custodians, on blockchain analytics and on international cooperation, all of which lie outside the classical domain of customs. Part E discussed the Swiss regulation of crypto-assets and digital assets in the financial centre.²

Notes

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA); Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets; on the definition of cash in Regulation 2018/1672, which does not include crypto-assets, see its Article 2. Status to be verified. ↩
On the discussion of crypto-assets in the context of cross-border declaration regimes, see the publications of the Financial Action Task Force on virtual assets; on Swiss regulation of crypto-assets and digital assets, see Part E. Status to be verified. ↩

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 August 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

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Crypto-assets and digital assets at the border

Notes

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