📅 Originally written: June 2023 | Last updated: May 2026 Figures and bank status verified against publicly available sources as of May 2026. Bank policies and thresholds change — confirm directly with each institution before making decisions.
The pitch sounds clean: Switzerland has FINMA-licensed banks that actually understand crypto. You can hold BTC and CHF in the same place, have your assets genuinely segregated under Swiss law, and not worry that your bank will freeze your account the moment it sees an on-chain transfer.
That pitch is true. But the part most coverage leaves out is what getting inside those banks actually involves.
This is a field note on that gap — the thresholds, the paperwork, the timeline, and the honest list of who these banks are actually designed to serve.
The Banks Worth Knowing
Switzerland has four institutions that sit in the “crypto-native or crypto-serious bank” category:
AMINA Bank (formerly SEBA Bank) — received its FINMA banking licence in August 2019 alongside Sygnum. Rebranded from SEBA to AMINA in December 2023. Headquartered in Zug. Offers trading, custody, lending, and staking for a range of crypto-assets. Holds a MiCA licence through Austria (secured November 2025), meaning it can passport services across the EU.
Sygnum Bank — also FINMA-licensed since 2019. Based in Zurich. Manages approximately CHF 5 billion in client assets across more than 1,700 clients in 60+ countries as of early 2025. Became a unicorn in January 2025 after its strategic growth round. Focuses on institutional and professional clients, with custody and trading as core products.
Bank Frick — based in Liechtenstein (not Switzerland proper, but regulated by Liechtenstein’s Financial Market Authority, which operates within the Swiss franc zone and EEA). The oldest of the four. Has offered crypto trading and custody since 2017, primarily for financial intermediaries and professional clients. Holds 17 cryptocurrencies.
InCore Bank — a Swiss B2B bank that provides crypto infrastructure to other financial institutions. Not a direct-to-client bank. If you are an individual looking to open an account personally, InCore is not your path — it functions as wholesale infrastructure.
Quick reality check — June 2023 observation
Of the four names that circulate in "Swiss crypto bank" conversations, one (InCore) is not accessible to individuals at all. That leaves three realistic options — and each has a very different client profile in mind.
What the Minimum Threshold Actually Looks Like
This is where the gap between marketing and reality is widest.
AMINA Bank does not publish a hard minimum deposit figure. What it does publish is the threshold for professional client status — which is a regulatory classification, not an arbitrary number. To qualify, a client needs either:
- Liquid assets of at least CHF 500,000 (excluding real estate, pension assets, and social security claims) plus relevant financial knowledge or professional experience in financial markets, or
- Liquid assets of CHF 2,000,000 or more, regardless of expertise
Clients who do not meet this threshold are classified as retail clients. AMINA can still onboard retail clients, but the product set available to them is meaningfully narrower.
Sygnum’s published materials suggest a minimum portfolio value of CHF 50,000 in crypto assets for custody accounts, though some practitioners and reviews put the practical institutional threshold at CHF 100,000 or higher. Sygnum’s fee structure is customized per client and quoted in basis points — which itself signals that the bank is designed for relationships measured in six figures and above, not single-coin retail holders.
Bank Frick’s thresholds are not publicly listed and are negotiated as part of the onboarding process. The bank is explicit that its primary client base is financial intermediaries and professional investors, not retail.
| Bank | FINMA licence | Individual accounts | Approx. AUM/crypto minimum | KYC depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMINA (formerly SEBA) | ✅ Full banking | ✅ Yes (retail + professional) | ~CHF 500K for professional status | Medium-high |
| Sygnum | ✅ Full banking | ✅ Yes (professional clients) | ~CHF 50-100K in crypto | High |
| Bank Frick | ✅ (via Liechtenstein FMA) | ⚠️ Limited (intermediaries preferred) | Negotiated, not disclosed | High |
| InCore | ✅ Full banking | ❌ B2B only | — | N/A for individuals |
The KYC Process: What They Actually Ask For
Swiss crypto banking KYC goes several layers deeper than a standard Swiss bank account opening.
Layer 1 — identity and address. Standard across all Swiss banks: valid passport or national ID, proof of address dated within the past three to six months. For non-Swiss residents, an official document showing tax residence. This part is unremarkable.
Layer 2 — source of funds. This is where crypto accounts diverge significantly from fiat-only banking. Banks require documentation showing how the client acquired their crypto assets. Depending on the volume involved, this can include:
- Exchange transaction history (typically 12+ months, sometimes going back further)
- Purchase confirmations and bank transfer records showing fiat-to-crypto conversions
- OTC trade confirmations if assets were acquired over the counter
- Mining revenue documentation if applicable
- Inheritance or gift documentation if assets were received rather than purchased
The completeness of blockchain transaction history is not optional. Gaps in the chain of custody — periods where the bank cannot trace where assets came from or went — are a common reason applications stall or get declined.
Layer 3 — tax compliance. Swiss banks, particularly post-CARF 2026, will ask for confirmation that the client has declared their crypto holdings in their home jurisdiction. This does not mean a client needs to have paid tax on unrealized gains — it means the bank needs comfort that the client is not using the account to move undeclared assets. For clients in high-tax jurisdictions with aggressive tax authorities, this can involve producing tax returns or a letter from an accountant.
Field note — what gets people rejected
The most common failure point practitioners report is not the identity documents — it is the source-of-funds gap. If your crypto came from multiple exchanges, some of which no longer exist, and you moved assets through several wallets over five years without keeping records, the bank will have difficulty satisfying its AML obligations. "Clean" transaction history — purchased on regulated exchanges, minimal mixer or anonymity-tool exposure, documented — significantly improves the outcome.
Individual vs. Institutional: A Real Difference
The word “individual” is doing a lot of work in Swiss crypto banking.
When AMINA says it accepts individual accounts, it means it can onboard natural persons — not just companies. But the experience of an individual with CHF 800,000 in liquid assets and a clean on-chain history is very different from an individual with CHF 30,000 in ETH and a few years of Binance history.
Sygnum’s stated client base is over 1,700 clients across 60 countries. Most observers in Zug and Zurich familiar with its book describe it as overwhelmingly institutional — asset managers, family offices, smaller exchanges, corporate treasuries, and professional investors. The bank did not become a unicorn by servicing individual hodlers.
This is not a criticism of either bank. They have a business model, regulatory obligations, and compliance costs that shape who they can profitably serve. It is, however, relevant information for anyone who reads “we accept individual clients” and assumes the door is equally open.
Timeline: How Long Does It Actually Take?
Coincub’s 2026 review of Sygnum notes “lengthy KYC procedures” with extended setup times due to “high KYC/compliance checks.” This is consistent with what practitioners and users describe informally.
For straightforward cases — documented history, regulated exchange purchases, professional investor classification — onboarding at AMINA or Sygnum typically runs four to eight weeks. For more complex cases — assets acquired across multiple jurisdictions, privacy coin holdings, gaps in transaction history, or assets from now-defunct platforms — the process can stretch to three or four months, and may not conclude with approval.
Bank Frick, operating as an intermediary-focused bank in Liechtenstein, often works through external asset managers or financial service providers rather than direct-to-client onboarding. The timeline there is typically negotiated alongside a broader client relationship structure.
How This Compares to a Standard Swiss Bank
To calibrate expectations: opening a regular Swiss bank account at a traditional cantonal bank or UBS/PostFinance involves identity verification, proof of address, and tax documentation. The threshold for crypto-related assets? It varies by institution, but many traditional Swiss banks have historically been reluctant to accept clients with significant crypto holdings as a primary wealth source — or have asked them to liquidate before onboarding.
The Swiss crypto-native banks exist precisely because of that gap. They will accept crypto assets as a legitimate part of a client’s portfolio, they will custody them under Swiss law, and they understand the on-chain due diligence requirements. That is genuinely valuable.
The trade-off is that the bar for entry is higher than most retail crypto holders expect, and the cost structure reflects institutional rather than retail banking economics.
What “Crypto-Friendly” Actually Means Here
A useful reframe: “crypto-friendly bank” in the Swiss context means a bank that has built compliance infrastructure around crypto assets, not a bank that asks fewer questions.
These institutions ask more questions than a traditional bank would, because they have to. FINMA expects them to maintain the same anti-money-laundering standards as any other Swiss bank — applied to an asset class that moves on public blockchains where every transaction is traceable but provenance still requires documentation.
The friendliness is in the capability to process crypto assets, not in the willingness to waive scrutiny. That distinction matters for anyone approaching Swiss crypto banking with the expectation of faster onboarding or lighter documentation.
Practical Considerations Before Applying
A few things worth thinking through before starting the process:
Document your transaction history now. Pull full exports from every exchange you have used. If some exchanges have closed, use blockchain explorers to reconstruct your transaction history and keep those exports. The time to do this is before an application, not during it.
Know where your assets came from. If you purchased crypto with savings, have the bank records showing the transfer. If you received crypto as payment, have the contracts or invoices. If you earned through staking or mining, have the income records.
Understand your tax position. Not because these banks will refuse clients who owe tax, but because a client who cannot clearly explain their tax situation raises more questions during KYC than one who can. A letter from a tax advisor in your jurisdiction confirming you have reported your holdings is useful collateral in the application process.
Be realistic about your asset level. If you are holding CHF 20,000 in Bitcoin, Swiss crypto-native banks are probably not the right fit for the current moment. The economics of maintaining a relationship with these institutions make more sense at higher thresholds.
Where the Ecosystem Is Going
AMINA’s MiCA licence obtained in Austria in November 2025 is significant. It means the bank can passport crypto custody and trading services across EU member states without needing separate national licences. For clients based in the EU, this changes the accessibility calculus — if your jurisdiction’s crypto banking situation is difficult, a bank with a MiCA passport operating out of Switzerland may offer a path that did not exist two years ago.
Sygnum’s unicorn status and growing AUM suggest the institutional end of Swiss crypto banking is deepening. The next two to three years are likely to see more product differentiation, with the gap between retail-accessible crypto banking (likely to come from neobanks and licensed exchanges rather than full FINMA-licensed banks) and institutional crypto banking widening further.
For a direct link to the FINMA banking licence history that put AMINA and Sygnum on the map, the FINMA regulatory guidance on crypto custody provides additional context on the legal framework these institutions operate within. The Swiss crypto tax overview is also relevant for anyone thinking through the full picture of holding crypto in Switzerland — the bank account is one piece of a larger structure.
The Honest Summary
Swiss crypto-native banks are real, well-regulated, and genuinely useful for the right client. The right client is generally not a retail investor with a few years of exchange history and mid-five-figure holdings.
The door is not closed to individuals. But the floor is higher than the marketing copy suggests, the KYC process is more intensive than most people expect, and the timeline is longer than anyone wants it to be.
That is not a failure of the Swiss system. It is the system operating as designed — accommodating crypto assets within a banking framework that takes its AML obligations seriously. The fit is good if you meet the threshold. If you do not yet, knowing exactly what the threshold is lets you plan toward it.
Field note from Zug. Not legal or financial advice — conditions change, and bank policies vary. Verify directly with each institution before making decisions.