Structures for crypto-assets and Digital Assets

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The families whose wealth includes crypto-assets and Digital Assets face specific questions in the planning of their succession. The assets are held through private keys, and whoever loses the keys loses the assets. The executor of an estate or the trustee of a trust must be able to access the assets. This requires arrangements for the secure storage and transmission of the keys that respect the security of the assets during the owner's lifetime. The valuation of tokens for inheritance and wealth tax purposes, the characterisation of tokens under the law of property and the recognition of rights in tokens in succession proceedings raise questions that Swiss law has addressed only partially.¹

The practitioners of Zug, who combine experience in wealth planning with access to the canton's crypto ecosystem, have developed solutions for these questions. These include the custody of crypto-assets with regulated institutions that can act on the instructions of an executor or trustee, the use of multi-signature arrangements that require the cooperation of several persons, the holding of crypto-assets through companies or foundations whose governance ensures continuity, and the documentation of the assets and the access procedures in the family's planning documents. Since 2014, the Swiss foundation has been used in Zug as the legal form of the foundations that develop and steward blockchain protocols, as Part G describes. Some families also use it as a vehicle for holding crypto-assets, within the limits that Article 335 of the Civil Code imposes on family foundations.

Notes

Partial statutory answers from the Federal Act of 25 September 2020 on the adaptation of federal law to developments in distributed electronic register technology, text via swissrights.ch: ledger-based securities (Art. 973d et seq. OR, in force 1 February 2021) and the surrender of crypto-based assets in bankruptcy (Art. 242a SchKG, in force 1 August 2021). Treated in Part H. ↩

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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Structures for crypto-assets and Digital Assets

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