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6 Swiss Banks Launch Swiss Franc (CHF) Stablecoin Sandbox

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Six Swiss banks have joined forces with Swiss Stablecoin AG to test a Swiss franc-pegged stablecoin. UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, and BCV announced the initiative on April 8.

The sandbox runs on Ethereum using ERC-20 and will operate throughout 2026.

No Regulated CHF Stablecoin Exists Yet

Stablecoins have grown rapidly in international importance, but the market remains dominated by USD-pegged tokens like USDT and USDC. Switzerland currently lacks a regulated Swiss franc stablecoin with broad application. The sandbox aims to address that gap.

The participating institutions will test selected use cases in a controlled live environment with defined safeguards, including transaction limits and a restricted participant pool. Swiss Stablecoin AG provides the technical infrastructure for issuing the stablecoin.

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Sygnum Bank, Source: X

Two Systemically Important Banks Involved

The consortium includes two of Switzerland’s four systemically important banks: UBS and the Raiffeisen Group. The combination of traditional banking institutions like UBS and Raiffeisen alongside digital-first players like Sygnum signals that Switzerland’s financial establishment is taking stablecoin infrastructure seriously.

Several participants are not new to tokenized finance. UBS, BCV, Raiffeisen Switzerland, and Zürcher Kantonalbank already participated in the Swiss National Bank’s Project Helvetia pilot, which tested wholesale CBDC on six Digital Exchange for settlement. The new sandbox is a private stablecoin test rather than a central bank project, but the operational experience carries over.

Stablecoin Sandbox Open to Additional Participants

The sandbox remains open to other interested banks, companies, and institutions. This positions the project as a framework that could expand rather than a closed pilot. The focus is on building a Swiss ecosystem for digital money, developing capabilities in digital payments, and gaining practical insights for the industry.

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The initiative follows similar efforts in Europe. A consortium of 12 banks, including BBVA, ING, and UniCredit, announced Qivalis, a digital euro stablecoin set to launch in the second half of 2026. A separate group of 10 banks, including Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and UBS, is also exploring stablecoin issuance.

What This Means for Switzerland

The sandbox represents Switzerland’s largest multi-bank collaboration on digital finance infrastructure. While MiCA-compliant Swiss franc stablecoins like AllUnity’s CHFAU already exist, the Swiss banking consortium aims at the institutional settlement layer.

The test runs through 2026. A sandbox interim report is expected in the second half of the year. For the broader market, access terms and specific use cases remain undisclosed. For banks and tokenization platforms watching the Swiss stablecoin infrastructure, this is the first multi-bank live test of its kind in the country.

The post 6 Swiss Banks Launch Swiss Franc (CHF) Stablecoin Sandbox appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Crypto World

Crypto Exchanges Vie for TradFi Commodities Market, Pricing Gaps Remain

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Crypto Exchanges Vie for TradFi Commodities Market, Pricing Gaps Remain

Cryptocurrency exchanges are taking a growing market share from traditional finance (TradFi) trading venues through tokenized commodities products, but the mainstream adoption of tokenized precious metals remains limited by pricing and liquidity issues.

Silver perpetuals have reached about 40% of the equivalent volume of the Comex Silver (SI) Contract at their peak, the world’s largest silver futures market, which accounts for over 70% of global exchange-traded silver futures volume, according to a Thursday report from Binance Research.

During March and April, tokenized silver accounted for 14.90% and 14.98% of the Comex’s volume, respectively, up from just 1.37% in January.

The growth suggests crypto exchanges are capturing more demand for round-the-clock exposure to traditional assets, particularly in metals-linked perpetuals, but analysts at Kaiko said liquidity depth and price formation still pose major obstacles to wider adoption among traditional investors.

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Average Aggregated TradFi-Perps Volume to The Primary Futures Equivalents on Traditional Exchanges. Source: Binance Research

Crypto TradFi perps need reliable pricing, strong liquidity

Tokenized commodities offer 24/7 trading, which can create vulnerabilities compared to TradFi gold and silver futures, where the holiday and weekend close create “natural circuit breakers that actually protect market quality,” Kaiko research analyst Laurens Fraussen told Cointelegraph.

This exposes tokenized commodities to degraded order book debt, widened spreads and less reference pricing from closed traditional venues.

Legacy commodities offerings avoid these issues through centralized clearing, consolidated liquidity, standardized contracts and “coordinated operating hours that prevent liquidity deserts,” Fraussen said, adding that crypto needs “better chain abstraction and unified liquidity aggregation” to compete with TradFi.

Related: NYSE taps Securitize for 24/7 tokenized securities platform

Despite the infrastructure concerns, tokenized gold perps have surpassed the gold futures trading volumes of several regional commodity exchanges, a trend seeing monthly acceleration, according to Binance Research.

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Figure 3: Average Aggregated Volume of Gold-Perps to Gold Futures in Regional Exchanges, in March

Binance Research also said gold perpetuals outpaced several regional commodity exchanges in March, reaching 401% compared to gold futures trading on the Japanese energy commodities futures exchange TOCOM, 228% of India’s Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and 216% of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX).

Binance attributed part of this growth to “market-moving events” that routinely occur on weekends, which would leave investors exposed to gap risks through traditional venues operating under regular trading hours.

Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?