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Digital Assets

Overview

Regulatory counsel for crypto and tokenisation businesses across the Swiss, EU and UK regimes.

Crypto business is regulated business in all three places: Switzerland has run an established regime for years and has consulted on a further reform of its licence categories, with the dispatch pending, MiCA gave the EU a code with a passport, and the UK's FSMA gateway window runs from 30 September 2026 to 28 February 2027, with the perimeter guidance finalised in September 2026. The work now is sequencing three regimes, and their pending changes, into one strategy.

We advise exchanges, custodians, issuers, CASPs, funds and the banks that serve them: token and product classification, authorisation strategy from Swiss SRO affiliation and FINMA licences, up to the DLT trading facility, to MiCA and the UK gateway, the AML layer that arrived ahead of everything else, and the operating questions, custody and staking design, stablecoin structures, vendor and banking relationships, that decide whether a licence becomes a business.

Where mandates touch home jurisdictions beyond ours, we work with established local counsel; the cross-border architecture and the compliance core are where we add the value.

SWITZERLAND The operating veteran Token taxonomy since 2018, DLT Act, SRO affiliation for AML, then licences by activity, to the bank Fast, settled, no EU passport EUROPEAN UNION The code with a passport MiCA authorisation, travel rule since end-2024, AML rulebook arriving 2027, DORA live One licence, EU-wide, per service UNITED KINGDOM A dated gateway window Seven new FSMA activities; applications 30 Sep 2026 to 28 Feb 2027; live 25 Oct 2027 No automatic conversion for MLR firms The strategic pattern: a Swiss base for speed and custody quality, an EU entity for the passported market, a UK decision inside the gateway window (30 September 2026 to 28 February 2027), planned as one architecture with one compliance core.

Three regimes, three characters, one plan. Dates as at 26 September 2026.

Follow the frameworks behind this practice in our Crypto Regulation Hub.

How we help

Authorisation and licensing

  • Swiss route: SRO membership, FinTech licence, DLT trading facility, authorisation enquiries (Unterstellungsanfragen)
  • MiCA CASP and ART issuer authorisation, EMT issuer licensing, white-paper notifications, and the PSD2 overlay for e-money token services
  • UK gateway preparation for the window to 28 February 2027
  • Dual- and triple-track structures planned as one architecture

Tokens and products

  • Token classification under the Swiss taxonomy and the ESAs' standardised test
  • Stablecoin structures: MiCA EMT/ART regime and the FINMA bank-guarantee model
  • Custody and staking design with insolvency protection in mind
  • Tokenisation and digital securities: Swiss DLT securities, the MiCA/MiFID boundary, the EU pilot regime, digital bonds and tokenised fund structures

The AML layer

  • Travel-rule implementation and self-hosted wallet policies
  • Screening and monitoring frameworks with documented calibration
  • Counterparty CASP due diligence and sanctioned-venue exposure
  • Readiness for the EU's 2027 rulebook and the Swiss AML reform of 1 October 2026

Banking and operations

  • Bank onboarding files built to pass enhanced due diligence
  • DORA programmes: registers, contract remediation, incident playbooks
  • Custody, technology and vendor contracts
  • Insurance-facing documentation of controls

How we engage

Three formats cover most needs, each built on one framework mapped across the relevant jurisdictions.

Regulatory strategy review

A fixed-scope mapping of your model against the Swiss, EU and UK regimes: classification, licence options, AML exposure and a sequenced plan with realistic timelines and costs.

Ongoing counsel

Continuing support for authorised businesses: policy and calibration maintenance, guideline tracking across the three regimes and their supervisors, new-product clearance and the documentation supervisors and banks ask for.

Authorisation and transaction support

Applications end to end, from Swiss SRO files to MiCA and the UK gateway, plus the regulatory workstream in fundraisings, acquisitions and banking partnerships.

Insights

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