The ecosystem today: Zug, Zurich and Lugano

The figures of the Crypto Valley reports

The most frequently cited source on the size of Crypto Valley is the annual report of the Zug investor CV VC, which for several years has counted the blockchain firms of Switzerland and Liechtenstein and ranked the fifty most valuable among them. The series allows a view of the development over time. In September 2020 the report counted 919 active firms, up from 842 in 2019. The fifty largest had created 776 jobs and the sector as a whole 4,784 positions, while the fifty largest were valued at 37.5 billion dollars.¹ At the peak of the market at the end of 2021 the number of firms had risen to 1,128, of which 528 were in Zug. The report counted about 6,000 direct employees, fourteen companies valued at more than one billion dollars and a combined valuation of the fifty largest of 611.8 billion dollars.²

The later editions show the effect of the market downturn of 2022 and the subsequent recovery. The report for 2024, published in January 2025, put the valuation of the fifty largest at 593 billion dollars, with seventeen unicorns. Venture funding in the region amounted to 586 million dollars in 2024, of which 42 per cent went to firms in Zug and 34.7 per cent to firms in Zurich. The region’s share of European blockchain funding rose to 29.1 per cent.³ A separate count published in May 2025 put the number of active firms at 1,749, an increase of 132 per cent since 2020. Of these, 719 or 41 per cent were located in Zug and 264 or 15 per cent in Zurich, followed by Ticino, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Lucerne and Liechtenstein. Infrastructure accounted for 20 per cent of firms, financial services for 18 per cent and consulting for 17 per cent.⁴

The most recent edition was presented on 14 April 2026 at the CV Labs premises in Zug, with the support of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the new Zug Institute for Blockchain Research.⁵ According to press reports, it counts 1,766 active firms, an all-time high, but with growth of only one per cent over the previous year. Zug lost four firms and stood at 715, Zurich fell from 264 to 257, while Ticino grew by 15.5 per cent to 119. The combined valuation of the fifty largest fell to 467 billion dollars with ten unicorns, reflecting lower token prices. Venture funding, by contrast, rose by 37 per cent to 728 million dollars in 2025, with 47 per cent of European venture capital for blockchain firms going to Swiss companies. The largest single transaction was a financing of 400 million dollars for the TON Foundation in March 2025, while the Zurich crypto bank Sygnum raised 58 million dollars in January 2025.⁶

These figures must be read with care. The valuations of the fifty largest are dominated by the market capitalisation of a few protocol tokens whose foundations have their seat in Switzerland. They say little about value creation in Switzerland, since the developers of these protocols work all over the world. The employment figures are more telling and remain modest compared with the traditional financial sector. The last published figure of about 6,000 direct employees at the end of 2021 corresponds roughly to the workforce of a single large Zurich private bank. The strength of the cluster lies elsewhere: in the density of specialised lawyers, auditors, compliance providers and banks, and in the fact that global projects choose Switzerland as their legal home.

Research and the role of the universities

The canton of Zug has used part of its considerable fiscal surpluses to anchor the cluster in research. The cantonal government launched a joint research initiative with a budget of about 39.35 million francs. Its main result is the Zug Institute for Blockchain Research, which was formally opened on 23 January 2026 in cooperation with the University of Lucerne. The canton finances the institute with 25 million francs over five years. Nine chairs are planned for the start-up phase, five of which had been filled at the opening in energy law, sociology, private law, philosophy and public law. The institute is organised as an association chaired by the finance director Heinz Tännler and has also obtained EU funding of 1.5 million euros for research on blockchain security.⁷

Zurich contributes the larger academic base. The UZH Blockchain Center, established in 2019 within the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics of the University of Zurich, brings together 24 faculty members from four faculties and hosts 65 researchers. Its work covers computer science, economics, finance, law and regulation, cryptography and digital art. The centre also offers a certificate of advanced studies in blockchain. It describes itself as the largest academic initiative in Switzerland in this field.⁸ The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich adds its research in cryptography, distributed systems and information security, which supplies the cluster with engineers. The Institute for Financial Services Zug of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts has accompanied the cluster since its beginnings with studies and continuing education.

Zurich’s role

The division of labour between Zug and Zurich follows a simple logic. Zug hosts the foundations, the protocol developers, the start-ups and a large part of the service firms that specialise in token projects. Zurich hosts the regulated financial institutions, the stock exchange group, the large law firms and audit firms, the universities and the international investors. The largest share of the capital that flows into the region is therefore mobilised through Zurich. A crypto project that wants to issue tokens, open a bank account, obtain an audit and later list a product will typically deal with Zug for its seat and with Zurich for most of its financial and legal services.

Several firms illustrate Zurich’s part in the cluster. The Dfinity Foundation, discussed above, has its seat in the city. Crypto Finance AG, founded in 2017, provides brokerage, custody, tokenisation services and asset management for institutional clients. In June 2021 Deutsche Börse acquired a two-thirds stake in the company, making it the digital asset arm of a large European exchange group.⁹ The Zurich firm 21Shares, founded in 2018, became one of the leading issuers of exchange-traded products on crypto-assets. In October 2025 the American prime broker FalconX agreed to acquire it, at a time when 21Shares managed more than eleven billion dollars in 55 listed products.¹⁰ Among the Zurich banks, the Zürcher Kantonalbank, UBS and the crypto bank Sygnum play the leading roles described in the next section.

Lugano’s Plan B

Ticino has become the third pole of the Swiss crypto scene. In March 2022 the city of Lugano announced, together with Tether, the issuer of the largest dollar stablecoin, a programme called Plan B, whose aim was to make Lugano a European centre for bitcoin and blockchain applications. In December 2023 the city announced that all municipal invoices could be paid in bitcoin or in Tether’s USDT through the Swiss QR-bill, with Bitcoin Suisse as technical partner.¹¹ The city has also been one of the most active issuers of digital bonds, as section VI shows. The growth of Ticino in the latest count of the Crypto Valley report suggests that the programme has attracted firms. Its long-term economic effect is harder to measure, because a municipal programme built around the cooperation with a single private stablecoin issuer depends on the fortunes of that issuer.

Notes

1. startupticker.ch, “The Swiss Crypto Valley continues to flourish”, 16 September 2020, https://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/september-2020/the-swiss-crypto-valley-continues-to-flourish. ↩
2. CV VC, “14 Unicorns and a half a trillion-dollar industry in Crypto Valley”, press release on the CV VC Top 50 Report 2021, https://www.cvvc.com/press-releases/launch-of-the-cv-vc-top-50-report-2021. ↩
3. CV VC, “CV VC Top 50 Report 2024: Crypto Valley Hits $593B with 17 Unicorns”, January 2025, https://www.cvvc.com/press-releases/cv-vc-top-50-report-2024-crypto-valley-hits-593b-with-17-unicorns. ↩
4. CV VC, “Crypto Valley Grows 132% Since 2020: Now Hosts 1,749 Companies”, May 2025, https://www.cvvc.com/press-releases/crypto-valley-grows-132-since-2020-now-hosts-1-749-companies. ↩
5. Luma event page, “Official Report Launch | Crypto Valley Top 50 & Ecosystem Report 2026”, https://luma.com/r16fspxg. The programme included remarks by the Zug finance director Heinz Tännler. ↩
6. Crypto Valley Journal, “Crypto Valley attracts 47 percent of European blockchain venture capital”, 16 April 2026, https://cryptovalleyjournal.com/hot-topics/news/crypto-valley-top-50-report-2026-47-percent-european-investments/. ↩
7. University of Lucerne, “Blockchain: Research institute of the Canton of Zug and the University of Lucerne opens”, January 2026, https://www.unilu.ch/en/news/blockchain-research-institute-of-the-canton-of-zug-and-the-university-of-lucerne-opens-10055/. ↩
8. UZH Blockchain Center, home page, https://www.blockchain.uzh.ch/, consulted September 2026. ↩
9. Deutsche Börse Group, “Deutsche Börse Group acquires majority stake in Crypto Finance AG”, press release, 29 June 2021, https://www.deutsche-boerse.com/dbg-en/media/news-stories/press-releases/Deutsche-B-rse-Group-acquires-majority-stake-in-Crypto-Finance-AG-extending-its-offering-for-digital-assets-2699048. ↩
10. FalconX, “FalconX Acquires Leading ETP Provider 21shares”, press release, 22 October 2025, https://www.falconx.io/newsroom/falconx-acquires-leading-etp-provider-21shares-accelerating-the-convergence-of-digital-assets-and-traditional-finance. ↩
11. Cointelegraph, “Swiss city Lugano accepts Bitcoin and Tether for municipal taxes”, December 2023, https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-accepted-taxes-swiss-lugano. ↩

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.