Switzerland and the European MiCA regime

The European framework

The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) entered into force in June 2023. Its titles on asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens have applied since 30 June 2024, the remainder since 30 December 2024. Member States could allow crypto-asset service providers that were active before 30 December 2024 to continue under national law during a transitional period that ended at the latest on 1 July 2026.¹ MiCA establishes uniform rules for the issuance of crypto-assets that are not already financial instruments, for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens and for crypto-asset service providers. An authorisation in one Member State can be passported to the others.

Consequences for Swiss firms

For Swiss providers the European regime has three consequences. The first is market access. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union or of the European Economic Area, and Swiss law confers no passport. A Swiss crypto firm that wishes to serve clients in the Union on a regular basis must either obtain authorisation in a Member State through a subsidiary or rely on the narrow exemption for services provided on the client's own exclusive initiative. The largest Swiss crypto institutions have chosen the first route. AMINA announced on 3 November 2025 that the Austrian Financial Market Authority had granted its subsidiary AMINA (Austria) AG a licence as a crypto-asset service provider under MiCA, covering trading, custody, portfolio management and staking for professional clients, and that it had already notified its services in thirteen further European countries.²

The second consequence is competitive. MiCA gives European issuers of e-money tokens and service providers a single market of some 450 million inhabitants with a single set of rules. Swiss firms faced a fragmented home regime without a stablecoin framework and with a fintech licence that few institutions held. The Federal Council's reform of 2025 can be read as a response to this competitive pressure, as the consultation documents make clear when they refer to jurisdictions with more developed crypto regulation. The third consequence concerns equivalence and interpretation. Although Switzerland does not adopt MiCA, the reform borrows several of its concepts, including the white paper, the full backing of stablecoins, redemption at par and the segregation of reserves. Swiss lawyers who advise on the new regime will read it against the background of MiCA and of the European supervisory guidance developed under it.

Differences of approach

The Swiss draft nevertheless differs from MiCA in several respects. It restricts the issuance of Swiss stablecoins to payment instrument institutions, while MiCA allows e-money institutions and credit institutions to issue e-money tokens. It relies on the existing securities law for tokens that qualify as securities, as MiCA does, but its residual category of crypto-assets with trading character is defined negatively and has been criticised as imprecise. It extends the Financial Services Act to crypto services where MiCA contains its own rules of conduct. The industry's warning of a consolidation along European lines, in which the number of providers might shrink from about 3,000 to between 150 and 300, shows that the Swiss market watches the European experience closely.³

For clients in Zurich the practical conclusion is that a crypto business with European ambitions now needs two regulatory relationships. A Swiss institution may serve Swiss and many non-European clients from Zurich while using a European subsidiary for clients in the Union. The same structure is familiar from traditional private banking, where Zurich banks have for decades used subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Germany or elsewhere to reach European clients. The crypto sector has thus reproduced a pattern that the Swiss financial centre learnt in the years after the end of banking secrecy.

Notes

European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), “Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA)”, https://www.esma.europa.eu/esmas-activities/digital-finance-and-innovation/markets-crypto-assets-regulation-mica. ESMA maintains an interim register of white papers, authorised crypto-asset service providers and non-compliant entities. ↩
AMINA Bank, “AMINA Becomes the First Crypto Banking Group to Receive a MiCA License through its Austrian Subsidiary”, 3 November 2025, https://aminagroup.com/press/amina-becomes-the-first-crypto-banking-group-to-receive-a-mica-license-through-its-austrian-subsidiary/. ↩
finews.ch, “Stablecoin-Vorlage: Ein wichtiges Zeichen, aber nun muss nachgebessert werden”, 9 December 2025, https://www.finews.ch/news/finanzplatz/70466-stablecoin-bundesrat-finanzinstitutsgesetz-finig-krypto-vernehmlassung-kryptoinstitute-kryptodienstleister-finma-bewilligungsverfahren-innovationsschub-emittenten-hans-kuhn-sbf-cva-sfta-cmta (on the expected consolidation in the European Union). ↩

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.

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Switzerland and the European MiCA regime

The European framework

Consequences for Swiss firms

Differences of approach

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?