The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA strikes a sharper tone toward the crypto market in its 2025 annual report. The authority explicitly warns of significant risks for consumers and pushes for new license categories for stablecoin issuers and crypto service providers.
A strategic shift compared with the previous year's report stands out. Whereas the 2024 annual report devoted three to four pages to operational and technical topics such as staking, custody and stablecoin guarantees, the 2025 edition covers crypto in roughly one and a half pages, but with a strategic and regulatory focus. As a result, FINMA has shifted operational details into routine supervision. The fundamental policy decisions now move to the foreground.
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Consumer protection becomes the central concern
For the first time, the FINMA crypto section in the 2025 annual report carries the title "FINMA advocates appropriate consumer protection in crypto regulation". The authority phrases it unusually directly: "As practice shows, consumers take on significant risks when buying, trading and transferring cryptocurrencies." Therefore, the regulator clearly positions itself against pure innovation friendliness without protective mechanisms.
In addition, FINMA announces that it will continue to bring its concerns regarding consumer protection and market integrity into regulatory processes. At the same time, the authority emphasizes that it welcomes innovation progress, provided investors remain protected. Notably, crypto does not rank among the nine main risks in the FINMA Risk Monitor 2025. Instead, the authority addresses the topic not as a systemic stability risk, but as a question of investor protection and integrity. Furthermore, inquiry volumes in the FinTech and crypto area are declining: from 104 inquiries in 2023 to 92 in 2024 and 75 in 2025. The average processing time stands below 30 days.
Switzerland's first DLT trading facility licensed
On the infrastructure side, FINMA set a marker in 2025. On 18 March 2025, it granted BX Digital AG the first DLT trading facility license in Switzerland since the law was introduced in 2021. The authorization became legally binding on 14 May 2025 after all conditions were met. BX Digital is a sister company of the BX Swiss exchange and belongs to the Boerse Stuttgart Group. In 2024, two DLT license applications were on the table, however FINMA did not grant a license at that time.
Settlement runs via a delivery-vs-payment smart contract on the public, permissionless Ethereum blockchain. Consequently, this is the first financial market infrastructure worldwide to handle trading and settlement of DLT securities on a public blockchain. Payment processing runs through the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) on behalf of the Swiss National Bank. In addition, a source-code audit of the smart contracts was part of the license conditions.
FINMA classified BX Digital as a "small DLT trading facility" because certain thresholds of the Financial Market Infrastructure Ordinance do not apply. The first trading participants include Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, Sygnum, Incore, ISP Group and Euwax. As a result, the Swiss financial center positions itself at the international forefront in tokenized securities. The license marks the innovation path that the Federal Council opened with the DLT Act, which entered into force in 2021.
FINIG amendment creates new license categories
In parallel with supervisory practice, FINMA is advancing a legislative reform together with the Federal Council. On 22 October 2025, the Federal Council opened the consultation on the FINIG amendment, which ended on 6 February 2026. The proposal envisages two new license categories for the crypto sector. Switzerland would thus fundamentally modernize its regulatory framework.
The first category is the payment institution, which is to replace the existing FinTech license under Art. 1b BankA. This license explicitly permits the issuance of "value-stable crypto-based means of payment", in other words stablecoins. The previous cap of CHF 100 million is removed. The second category is the crypto institution. It covers custody including staking, customer trading, short-term proprietary trading and crypto exchange services. Both categories newly bring crypto financial intermediaries under direct FINMA supervision. Until now, only self-regulatory organizations under the Anti-Money Laundering Act monitored these players.
The industry expects the Federal Council's dispatch to parliament in 2026 or 2027, with entry into force at the earliest in 2027. Industry associations such as SBF, CVA, SFTA and CMTA submitted a joint consultation response. A central point of criticism from the industry concerns the duration of proceedings. Current FINMA authorization procedures take 18 to 24 months, and the industry calls for a reduction to a maximum of six months. FINMA itself contributed to the bill and supports the structural reorganization.
Custody requirements and stablecoin line tightened
FINMA already became concrete on 12 January 2026 with Guidance 01/2026 on crypto custody. According to this, delegations to foreign third-party custodians are only permissible if equivalent supervision and comparable insolvency protection apply there. 27 of 33 supervised institutions already do not use foreign third-party custodians. Therefore, the new guidance is likely to affect specialized crypto service providers more than established banks.
For stablecoins, FINMA continues the line it began in 2024. Holders of stablecoins have a redemption claim, which qualifies as a deposit under the Banking Act. For this reason, many Swiss issuers work with default guarantees from banks instead of holding their own banking license. Concrete minimum requirements are in place. Anonymous stablecoins remain prohibited, and AMLA identity verification of stablecoin holders has been mandatory since 2021. Moreover, FINMA points to growing risks from anonymous transfers, particularly in the context of money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion.
An asymmetric supervisory strategy is therefore emerging. On infrastructure and tokenized securities, FINMA acts in an innovation-friendly manner and sets an international benchmark with the BX Digital license. By contrast, on consumer business, stablecoins and custody, the authority is tightening the reins. For crypto service providers without a banking license, such as Bitcoin Suisse, Taurus or Crypto Finance, the FINIG amendment brings direct supervision instead of the SRO model, a regime change that is likely to noticeably increase operational effort. Swiss banks with a crypto strategy, such as Sygnum or AMINA, should benefit from the clearer framework. The consultation results and the Federal Council's dispatch will show in 2026 how far the industry can influence the duration of proceedings and the staking provisions.
