FINMA Grants Switzerland's First DLT Trading Facility

On 18 March 2025, FINMA authorised BX Digital AG as Switzerland's first DLT trading facility operator. BX Digital is a sister company of BX Swiss AG and forms part of the Börse Stuttgart Gruppe. The approval gives the DLT trading facility regime its first working precedent, more than three years after the amended Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FinMIA) entered into force on 1 August 2021.

The licence BX Digital holds

The DLT trading facility is a Swiss financial market infrastructure licence created by the DLT Act amendments to FinMIA. It was designed for venues that trade ledger-based securities: tokenised financial instruments recorded on a distributed ledger.

BX Digital was authorised under the small DLT trading facility regime, which applies reduced supervisory requirements to operators that stay below defined thresholds for trading, custody and settlement volumes. FINMA still set strict conditions. BX Digital had to show how the platform would maintain operations during disruptions (business continuity management) and demonstrate that the smart contracts used were secure and that technical risks were under control.

Ethereum, delivery-versus-payment and the SIC connection

BX Digital uses Ethereum as the public blockchain on which transactions are executed and recorded. Settlement of ledger-based securities works through smart contracts that enforce delivery-versus-payment (DvP): the buyer receives the digital security and the seller receives payment simultaneously, reducing counterparty risk for both parties.

For the cash leg, the platform connects to the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) system, the official Swiss payment infrastructure operated by the Swiss National Bank. FINMA published the authorisation announcement in its news section on 18 March 2025.

Aimed at regulated institutions

BX Digital's offering is directed at regulated financial institutions such as banks and asset managers, rather than individual retail investors. This is distinct from what the DLT trading facility licence permits in principle: the category allows a venue to admit retail participants to trade directly, setting it apart from a conventional exchange that admits only regulated members. BX Digital's specific implementation focuses on the institutional market.

What this means for tokenised-securities work

As of July 2026, BX Digital remains the first operator to hold a DLT trading facility authorisation in Switzerland. The precedent carries weight: FINMA has examined Ethereum-based settlement, delivery-versus-payment via smart contract and the integration of on-ledger settlement with a central payment system, and found this architecture compatible with financial market infrastructure standards.

For institutions considering tokenised securities infrastructure, the approved model provides a concrete reference point. Goldblum and Partners is a consulting and structuring firm in Zurich and Zug, advising on DLT trading facility feasibility, structuring and FINMA authorisation applications. The wider crypto regulatory framework in Switzerland sets the context for this work. We are not FINMA-licensed and are not an SRO member.