Tokenisation and digital market infrastructure

SIX Digital Exchange

The most ambitious project of the Swiss financial centre in this field was built by SIX, the operator of the Swiss stock exchange and of the central securities depository SIX SIS, which is described in chapter H.I. On 10 September 2021 FINMA granted SIX Digital Exchange AG a licence as central securities depository and SDX Trading AG a licence as stock exchange. It was the first time in the Swiss financial centre that infrastructures for the trading of digital securities in the form of tokens and their integrated settlement had been licensed. Following the traditional route of the Financial Market Infrastructure Act, the offering was limited to supervised financial institutions, and FINMA stressed that it applied the principle of “same risks, same rules”.¹

The early years of SDX were modest in volume. Before the central bank pilot of 2023, only three bond issues of several million francs each had been placed on the platform in two years. SDX nevertheless passed the mark of one billion francs of issued digital bonds in May 2024, after five issues within six months, all settled in wholesale central bank money.² In March 2025 SIX announced that SDX would be merged into its securities services business unit as part of a programme called “Scale Up 2027”, which also involved the reduction of about 150 positions under the new chief executive Bjørn Sibbern.³ On 5 May 2026 FINMA approved the merger of SIX Digital Exchange AG into SIX SIS AG and authorised the consolidated central securities depository to provide custody of crypto-assets. SIX described the new model as “one plug to two worlds”, through which financial institutions can hold traditional securities and crypto-assets through a single regulated infrastructure, and announced the ambition to become a pan-European provider of integrated digital post-trade services by 2030.⁴ SIX now markets the digital infrastructure as the SIX Digital Asset Platform, a regulated central securities depository operated by SIX SIS that settles digital securities in tokenised francs and euros or in wholesale central bank money.⁵

The integration of SDX into the traditional depository reflects a lesson learned in several financial centres. A separate digital infrastructure attracts pilots and publicity but struggles to reach the liquidity and network effects of the established system. By placing the digital ledger within the licensed depository, SIX allows banks to use a single connection for both worlds and treats tokenisation as a technical variant of existing processes. Whether this approach will prevail over platforms that operate directly on public blockchains is one of the open questions of the coming years.

Digital bonds

The first large issue on SDX came from UBS. On 3 November 2022 the bank launched a digital bond of 375 million francs with a term of three years and a coupon of 2.33 per cent, which was listed and traded both on SDX and on SIX Swiss Exchange. UBS described it as the first digital bond of a bank to be publicly traded and settled on both blockchain-based and traditional exchanges. Legally the instrument had the same structure and status as its conventional senior unsecured notes.⁶ The dual listing solved a problem that had held back investors: they could buy the bond through their ordinary custody chain without connecting to the new infrastructure.

Public issuers followed. In January 2023 the city of Lugano issued its first digital bond of 100 million francs, led by the Zürcher Kantonalbank. On 15 November 2023 the Basler Kantonalbank issued for the canton of Basel-Stadt a digital bond of 105 million francs with a term of four years, the first to be acquired with digital Swiss francs issued by the Swiss National Bank within the pilot described below.⁷ On 1 December 2023 the Zürcher Kantonalbank, as joint lead manager, completed the first digital bond of the canton of Zurich with settlement in central bank money on SDX. According to the bank, it was the first syndicated franc bond settled in wholesale central bank digital currency, and one of the first issues of its kind worldwide.⁸

The series continued in 2024 and 2025. On 7 February 2024 Lugano issued a second digital bond of 100 million francs with a ten-year term and a coupon of 1.415 per cent, managed by the Zürcher Kantonalbank, Bank J. Safra Sarasin and the Basler Kantonalbank, dual-listed on SDX and SIX Swiss Exchange and settled in wholesale central bank money.⁹ On 15 May 2024 the World Bank issued a digital bond of 200 million francs with a seven-year term and a coupon of 1.1575 per cent, led by Commerzbank. It was the first digital bond of an international organisation settled in wholesale central bank money, and links to Euroclear and Clearstream allowed investors to hold it through the traditional international depositories.¹⁰ Lugano placed a third digital bond of 120 million francs in October 2024 and a fourth of 100 million francs with a seven-year term and a coupon of 0.6125 per cent in May 2025. Its deputy chief financial officer reported that the city had obtained a spread comparable to that of a triple-A issuer, although its rating was Aa3.¹¹

For the public treasuries of Zurich, Basel and Lugano these issues were not a source of cheap funding. Their motive was to gain experience with an infrastructure that may become standard, to support the financial centre and to test the legal and operational processes of issuance, custody and settlement. For the banks that led the issues, the transactions provided a proof of concept for clients and regulators. They also showed that tokenisation of plain vanilla bonds works technically and legally under Swiss law, whereas the economic advantage over the efficient traditional system remains small as long as volumes are limited.

Project Helvetia

The most important element of the Swiss approach is the involvement of the central bank. Together with SIX and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, the Swiss National Bank began to experiment with the settlement of tokenised assets in central bank money several years before the first digital bonds were issued. The first phase of Project Helvetia, completed on 3 December 2020, confirmed the feasibility of settling tokenised assets in central bank money. The second phase, completed on 13 January 2022, demonstrated the integration of wholesale central bank digital currency into the systems of commercial banks and of the central bank.¹²

In the third phase the SNB went into production. From December 2023 it issued real wholesale central bank digital currency in francs on SDX, initially for a period until June 2024. Six commercial banks took part: the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, the Basler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, UBS and the Zürcher Kantonalbank. The participants issued digital bonds settled against the central bank money on a delivery-versus-payment basis, and repo transactions were also to be settled through the SIX Repo trading platform.¹³ In a speech in Basel on 6 May 2024 the then chairman of the SNB, Thomas Jordan, reported that four tokenised bond issues and one secondary market transaction had been settled in wholesale central bank money since the start of the pilot. He explained that settlement in central bank money was crucial because it eliminated credit risk and minimised liquidity risk. He also mentioned two alternatives under study: a direct link between distributed ledger platforms and the real-time gross settlement system, and privately issued tokens fully backed by central bank deposits.¹⁴

The pilot was extended several times. On 30 June 2025 the SNB announced that it would continue until at least mid-2027 and that it would add a second approach: the settlement of tokenised assets with traditional central bank money through a link to the Swiss Interbank Clearing system. For this purpose the SNB connected BX Digital to the production environment of SIC. The SNB stressed that the extension did not constitute a commitment to introduce wholesale central bank digital currency permanently.¹⁵ The SNB’s project page, as consulted in September 2026, states that the pilot will run until at least June 2028, that it will be extended gradually to further financial institutions and types of transactions, and that participants must hold a sight deposit account with the SNB, be admitted to SIC and be connected to the SIX Digital Asset Platform.¹⁶

Helvetia gives Switzerland an advantage that few centres share. In most jurisdictions tokenised securities are settled either in commercial bank money or in private stablecoins, which introduces credit risk into the settlement. In Zurich a bank that issues or buys a digital bond can settle it in central bank money on the ledger itself. That possibility is of practical interest to international issuers such as the World Bank and to institutional investors, even if the volumes remain small compared with the traditional bond market.

BX Digital, Taurus and private markets

The second infrastructure for tokenised securities comes from Börse Stuttgart. On 18 March 2025 FINMA granted BX Digital AG, a sister company of the exchange BX Swiss and part of the Boerse Stuttgart Group, the first licence as a distributed ledger technology trading facility under the DLT Act, which had entered into force on 1 August 2021. On such a facility book-entry securities are transferred and held on a blockchain. BX Digital applied as a small facility, which means that certain thresholds may not be exceeded. It must have a business continuity strategy that includes settlement on public blockchains, its smart contracts are subject to technical audits and it serves only supervised participants. Settlement takes place on a delivery-versus-payment basis through smart contracts connected to SIC, while BX Digital itself does not hold DLT securities in custody.¹⁷ The legal framework of the DLT trading facility is described in chapter J.I. Its practical significance is that Switzerland now has two regulated models: SIX, with a private ledger within the traditional depository, and BX Digital, with settlement on a public blockchain linked to central bank money.

For smaller issuers and private markets, other platforms have emerged. Taurus operates the TDX marketplace, a trading venue for tokenised securities. In January 2024 FINMA allowed it to open the platform to retail clients in addition to institutional and professional investors. Among the issuers were the real estate firm Investis, the insurer la Mobilière and the online retailer QoQa.¹⁸ The Zurich firm Aktionariat enables companies to issue their shares as ledger-based securities under Article 973d of the Code of Obligations. More than 85 companies have tokenised their shares on its platform, mostly on Ethereum or related networks.¹⁹ The Capital Markets and Technology Association, a Geneva-based industry body, published its first model for the tokenisation of shares of Swiss companies in October 2018, before the adoption of the DLT Act by Parliament on 25 September 2020. Its standard for the tokenisation of shares, first published in December 2021, was last updated on 12 September 2024.²⁰

Tokenised real estate

Real estate, the largest asset class of Swiss private wealth, was an early candidate for tokenisation. In March 2019 twenty per cent of the value of a building in Baar, about three million francs, was tokenised on Ethereum and sold to four investors in a club deal.²¹ In January 2020 the Zug firm BrickMark bought the property at Bahnhofstrasse 52 in Zurich from RFR Holding for about 130 million francs and paid roughly twenty per cent of the price in tokens. The tokens gave investors fractional economic participation in the rental income and in any increase in value. BrickMark’s chief executive Stefan Rind stated that there had never been a token-financed transaction of this size.²²

These transactions did not lead to a broad market. The obstacle lies in the law of property. Title to land in Switzerland arises from entry in the land register, which is kept by the cantons and cannot be replaced by a token. What can be tokenised is therefore a claim, a share in a company that owns the property or a unit of a real estate fund, but not the property itself. Transfers of such claims or shares must also respect the Federal Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad, which restricts the acquisition of residential property by foreign buyers and applies to shares in real estate companies.²³ Tokenised real estate in Switzerland thus remains a niche for club deals and fund units.

Notes

1. FINMA, “FINMA issues first-ever approval for a stock exchange and a central securities depository for the trading of tokens”, media release, 10 September 2021, https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2021/09/finma-issues-first-ever-approval-for-a-stock-exchange-and-a-central-securities-depository-for-the-trading-of-tokens/. ↩
2. Ledger Insights, “SIX Digital Exchange surpasses CHF 1 billion on exchange with World Bank bond”, 21 May 2024, https://www.ledgerinsights.com/six-digital-exchange-surpasses-chf-1-billion-on-exchange-with-world-bank-bond/. ↩
3. Ledger Insights, “SIX merges Digital Exchange SDX into securities services group”, 12 March 2025, https://www.ledgerinsights.com/six-merges-digital-exchange-sdx-into-securities-services-group/. ↩
4. SIX, “SIX Receives FINMA Approval to Merge Digital CSD into SIX SIS AG and to Provide Crypto Custody Through the Consolidated CSD”, media release, 5 May 2026, https://www.six-group.com/en/newsroom/media-releases/2026/20260505-custody-consolidation.html. ↩
5. SIX, “Digital Securities Issuance & Market Solutions”, https://www.six-group.com/en/products-services/securities-services/digital-assets/digital-securities.html, consulted September 2026. ↩
6. UBS, “UBS AG launches the world’s first digital bond that is publicly traded and settled on both blockchain-based and traditional exchanges”, media release, 3 November 2022, https://www.ubs.com/global/en/media/display-page-ndp/en-20221103-digital-bond.html. ↩
7. Kanton Basel-Stadt, “Basel-Stadt lanciert erste digitale Anleihe”, media release, 15 November 2023, https://www.bs.ch/medienmitteilungen/fd/2023-basel-stadt-lanciert-erste-digitale-anleihe. ↩
8. Zürcher Kantonalbank, “wCBDC-Transaktion”, media release, 1 December 2023, https://www.zkb.ch/de/ueber-uns/medien/medienmitteilungen/2023/wcbdc-transaktion.html. ↩
9. finews.ch, “Stadt Lugano emittiert weitere digitale Anleihe”, February 2024, https://www.finews.ch/news/finanzplatz/61287-lugano-digital-bond-anleihe-snb-cbdc. ↩
10. World Bank, “World Bank Partners with Swiss National Bank and SIX Digital Exchange to Advance Digitalization in Capital Markets”, press release, 15 May 2024, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/05/15/world-bank-partners-with-swiss-national-bank-and-six-digital-exchange-to-advance-digitalization-in-capital-markets. ↩
11. Global Government Finance, “Swiss city of Lugano issues fourth blockchain bond”, May 2025, https://www.globalgovernmentfinance.com/lugano-fourth-blockchain-bond/. ↩
12. SIX, “Digital Securities Issuance & Market Solutions”, milestones section, https://www.six-group.com/en/products-services/securities-services/digital-assets/digital-securities.html, consulted September 2026. ↩
13. SIX, “SIX collaborates with the Swiss National Bank to pilot wholesale CBDC issuance in Switzerland”, media release, 2 November 2023, https://www.six-group.com/en/newsroom/media-releases/2023/20231102-six-sdx-snb-helvetia-lll.html. ↩
14. Thomas Jordan, “Project Helvetia III – The Swiss National Bank’s pilot for wholesale CBDC”, speech at the BIS Innovation Summit 2024, Basel, 6 May 2024, BIS central bankers’ speeches, https://www.bis.org/review/r240506e.htm. ↩
15. Swiss National Bank, “Swiss National Bank extends and expands Project Helvetia”, press release, 30 June 2025, https://www.snb.ch/en/publications/communication/press-releases/2025/pre_20250630. ↩
16. Swiss National Bank, “Project Helvetia”, https://www.snb.ch/en/the-snb/mandates-goals/payment-transactions/projekt_helvetia, consulted September 2026. ↩
17. FINMA, “FINMA licenses first DLT trading facility”, media release, 18 March 2025, https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2025/03/20250318-mm-dlt-handelssystem/. ↩
18. The Block, “Swiss fintech firm Taurus granted approval to offer tokenized securities to retail clients”, 23 January 2024, https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2024-01-23-deutsche-bank-backed-taurus-granted-finma-approval-retail-tokenized-asset-trading-273983. ↩
19. Aktionariat, “What Is Equity Tokenization? The Definitive Guide [2026]”, https://www.aktionariat.com/resources/insights/what-is-equity-tokenization-guide, consulted September 2026. ↩
20. Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA), “Standard for the tokenization of shares of Swiss corporations using the distributed ledger technology”, https://cmta.ch/standards/standard-for-the-tokenization-of-shares-of-swiss-corporations-using-the-distributed-ledger-technology. ↩
21. immobilienbusiness.ch, “First Swiss real estate transaction on blockchain”, 6 March 2019, https://www.immobilienbusiness.ch/en/?p=16112, which reports that 20 per cent of the value of the property at Grabenstrasse 3 in Baar, about CHF 3 million, was tokenised on Ethereum through the Blockimmo platform, with Elea Labs and Swiss Crypto Tokens, and sold to four investors in a club deal. ↩
22. swissinfo.ch, “Slice of prime Zurich real estate sold on blockchain”, January 2020, https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/tokenised-investment_slice-of-prime-zurich-real-estate-sold-on-blockchain/45495450. ↩
23. Federal Act of 16 December 1983 on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad (BewG, Lex Koller), SR 211.412.41, Art. 4 para. 1 lit. a and e, bilingual edition, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/2/21/211.412.41-4-7.html: acquisition of a property includes the acquisition of shares in a legal entity whose actual purpose is the acquisition of real estate, unless the shares are listed on a Swiss stock exchange. On the land register see Arts. 942 ff. of the Civil Code. ↩

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.