Checklist: integrating crypto-assets and digital assets into a Geneva institution

Define the institution’s strategy: simple access for clients, in-house custody and trading, issuance of tokenised assets, or a reasoned decision to abstain.
Choose authorised infrastructures and providers, verifying their licences, their segregation of client assets and their financial soundness.
Adapt anti-money laundering procedures: identification of the holders of external addresses, travel rule, chain analysis, screening of sanctioned addresses.
Prepare for the application of the automatic exchange of information on crypto-assets: identification of tax residence, data collection, communication to clients.
Train advisers in the characteristics and risks of crypto-assets and digital assets and document the suitability of recommendations for clients’ profiles.
Monitor regulatory developments in Switzerland (payment and crypto institution licences), in Europe (MiCA) and in the United States, as well as their consequences for market access.
Assess tokenisation opportunities in the institution’s lines of business: bond issues, fund units, private assets, trade documents.
Confine public communication to actual achievements and avoid promises of returns linked to the technology.

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 September 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.

My approach is to act as a trusted advisor who works directly with decision-makers, on an equal footing: I start from what you want to achieve and shape every structure, contract and tax decision around your commercial goals and how it improves your after-tax return. As “lawyers who make it happen”, my team and I stay involved until your company is set up, your structure is in place and your transaction has closed, and we remain available for any follow-on work that may be required. You benefit from bespoke solutions and personal attention, and sound, friendly and practical advice. We are not the lowest-cost provider in the market, nor do we intend to be; our aim is to deliver well-founded, proper solutions and excellent value for money.

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