When does a crypto business need a FINMA licence?

SRO affiliation is the starting point, not a licence

SRO membership covers anti-money laundering duties only. It does not authorise activities that financial market law reserves to licensed institutions. Before launch, each service should be mapped against the Banking Act, the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA), the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA), the Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA) and the Financial Services Act (FinSA).

Typical triggers for a FINMA licence

• Deposits: holding client fiat or crypto in a way that creates a repayment claim against the company (pooled accounts, yield products, lending) can amount to accepting public deposits. Depending on scale, this requires a banking licence or the FINMA fintech licence (art. 1b Banking Act), which allows deposits up to a capped amount without lending them out or paying interest.
• Custody: crypto held in custody is not treated as a deposit if it is kept segregated and attributable to each client at all times, a principle reinforced by the 2021 DLT Act. Pooled or non-segregated custody may fall back into the deposit regime.
• Security tokens: dealing professionally in asset tokens that qualify as securities, on own account or for clients, can require a securities firm licence under FinIA.
• Trading venues: running a multilateral platform for security tokens requires a stock exchange, MTF or DLT trading facility licence under FMIA.
• Asset management: managing third-party portfolios requires a portfolio manager licence (FinIA); pooled crypto funds may fall under CISA.

Stablecoins and new rules

Issuing a stablecoin with a redemption promise can amount to accepting deposits, and FINMA has published specific guidance on stablecoins and default guarantees. Switzerland has also been working on new licence categories for payment and crypto institutions. Whether and when these apply should be checked at the time of structuring.

How to get clarity

FINMA accepts requests for a non-binding assessment (often called a no-action or ruling request) based on a detailed description of the business and a legal analysis. For token issuers, FINMA has published a checklist of the information it expects. A clear analysis before launch is far cheaper than a FINMA enforcement procedure for unauthorised activity.

Why it matters elsewhere

Switzerland regulates crypto activities mainly through its existing financial market laws rather than a single crypto statute, and decides according to what each service actually does. This activity-based method works in any jurisdiction: list every service, ask whether it involves deposits, securities, a trading venue or third-party assets, and compare it with the local equivalents. A business in a less-regulated country that runs this exercise is better prepared when new rules arrive or when a bank or partner asks how its model would be treated.

How Advisorn helps

Advisorn maps each service of your model against Swiss financial market law, prepares the legal analysis for FINMA where needed and designs structures that keep you within the scope you intend.