Switzerland · wholesale CBDC

Project Helvetia and the SNB on public blockchains

Project Helvetia is the Swiss National Bank's multi-phase programme, run with the BIS Innovation Hub and SIX Digital Exchange, to settle tokenised assets in central bank money. It also reveals the SNB's working answer to a harder question: which kind of blockchain is acceptable infrastructure for public money.

What it is

A joint SNB / BIS Innovation Hub / SIX experiment on settling tokenised securities in wholesale central bank money.

Where it runs

SIX Digital Exchange — a FINMA-licensed DLT trading facility and CSD with permissioned participants.

Why it matters

It sets the reference architecture Swiss issuers and banks are expected to plug into for tokenised settlement.

The four phases

From proof of concept to live issuance of Swiss-franc wholesale CBDC.

Phase I2020

Proof of concept

SNB · BIS Innovation Hub (Swiss Centre) · SIX Digital Exchange

Tested whether delivery-versus-payment for tokenised assets on SDX could be settled in central bank money. Two designs were explored: issuing a wholesale CBDC directly on the DLT platform, and linking the DLT platform to the existing SIC RTGS system.

Outcome: Both approaches were shown to be technically and legally feasible. No decision to issue a wholesale CBDC was taken.

Phase II2021

Operational and cross-border integration

SNB · BIS · SIX · five commercial banks (incl. Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, UBS)

Extended the experiment to a production-like environment with core banking systems, cross-border settlement and monetary policy operations, testing end-to-end flows rather than isolated settlement legs.

Outcome: Wholesale CBDC could be integrated into existing bank processes and cross-border transactions without redesigning the whole infrastructure.

Phase III2023–2024

Live pilot with real value

SNB · SDX · Swiss cantons, cities and the World Bank as bond issuers

The first live issuance of Swiss-franc wholesale CBDC on a regulated DLT platform. Real digital bonds were issued and settled against real central bank money, with secondary market and monetary policy operations included.

Outcome: Moved from experiment to production: genuine CHF wholesale CBDC used for real bond settlement, initially as a time-limited pilot and subsequently extended.

Phase IV2025 onwards

Scaling and standardisation

SNB · SDX · widening set of financial institutions

Broadening the participant base and the range of instruments, exploring how tokenised settlement assets, repo operations and interbank flows can run at scale on a regulated platform.

Outcome: Establishes wholesale CBDC on a regulated DLT venue as the SNB's working reference model for tokenised settlement in Switzerland.

The SNB's position on public blockchains

What Helvetia's design choices — and the SNB's public communication — imply for permissionless infrastructure.

Settlement asset must be central bank money

The SNB's consistent line is that the safest settlement asset for tokenised securities is central bank money — not a privately issued stablecoin and not a commercial bank token. Helvetia exists to show this can be done natively on a DLT platform.

Wholesale, not retail

The SNB has repeatedly stated it sees no need for a retail CBDC in Switzerland. Its digital-currency work is directed at wholesale interbank settlement, where the efficiency case and the risk perimeter are clearest.

Preference for regulated, permissioned platforms

Helvetia runs on SIX Digital Exchange — a FINMA-licensed DLT trading facility and central securities depository with known, supervised participants. Governance, legal finality and identifiable counterparties are the reason for that choice.

Reservations about public, permissionless chains

SNB representatives have publicly flagged that issuing central bank money on a public blockchain raises unresolved questions: anonymous validators, no legal accountability for the ledger, settlement finality that is probabilistic rather than legal, operational and governance risk outside any supervised entity, and AML/CFT exposure.

Not a categorical rejection

The SNB has not ruled public infrastructure out permanently. Its position is conditional: public chains would need legally robust finality, resilient governance and a supervisory perimeter before central bank money could sit on them. Meanwhile, tokenised private money on public chains remains a matter for FINMA supervision, not SNB issuance.

Permissioned DLT vs. public permissionless chains

Dimension	Regulated DLT platform (SDX / Helvetia)	Public permissionless chain
Ledger participants	Licensed, identified institutions admitted by the platform operator	Open, pseudonymous validators anywhere in the world
Settlement finality	Legal finality anchored in Swiss FMIA / DLT Act and platform rulebook	Economic and probabilistic; finality is a protocol assumption, not a legal one
Governance	Accountable, supervised operator (FINMA-licensed)	Diffuse; protocol changes decided by an open community
AML / CFT	Enforced at admission and at the transfer layer	Enforced only at the edges (VASPs, wallet providers)
Operational risk	Contained within the supervised perimeter	Depends on external client software, MEV dynamics and network congestion
Interoperability & reach	Limited to platform members; bridges needed to reach broader markets	Global composability with DeFi and tokenisation ecosystems

What this means for CHF issuers

Central bank money stays permissioned

Do not plan a CHF product that assumes SNB money settles on a public chain. The wholesale settlement leg belongs on a regulated venue.

Private CHF tokens fill the public-chain gap

Deposit tokens and CHF stablecoins are the instruments that can live on public chains — under FINMA rules, not SNB issuance.

Design for a bridge, not a bet

Architectures that can settle on SDX while distributing on public rails hedge both regulatory directions.