FINMA’s Guidelines for enquiries regarding the regulatory framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs), published on February 16, 2018, explain how Switzerland’s financial supervisor assesses token offerings under existing financial-market legislation. As of November 2, 2026, FINMA still references them in its authorisation materials. They are supervisory guidance, with a publication date rather than a separate statutory commencement date. FINMA publication announcement; current authorisation page; regulatory role.
Scope of the FINMA ICO guidelines
The guidelines address enquiries from organisers about proposed ICOs and possible licensing requirements. Building on Guidance 04/2017, which addressed offerings conducted in or from Switzerland, they apply an assessment of each project’s economic substance. The underlying activity and token rights determine which Swiss laws are relevant; the ICO label alone does not establish a universal licensing requirement. FINMA’s assessment principles.
Payment, utility and asset tokens
FINMA distinguishes three categories by economic function. Payment tokens serve payment or value-transfer purposes. Utility tokens provide digital access to an application or service. Asset tokens represent economic interests, such as debt, equity or rights to future earnings. A token can combine functions, bringing more than one regulatory regime into consideration. Token categories.
Under the guidelines, pure payment tokens are generally not securities. Utility tokens fall outside securities treatment only when their sole purpose is access to an application or service and that access works at issuance. Tokens with an investment function can be securities even when described as utility tokens. Securities treatment.
Asset tokens qualify as securities where the relevant statutory conditions, including standardisation and suitability for mass trading, are met. Claims to receive future tokens in pre-financing or pre-sale arrangements can also be securities when standardised and suitable for mass trading. Hybrid tokens can attract cumulative requirements. Guidelines, sections 3.1–3.2.
AML and other financial-market requirements
The guidelines link issuance of payment tokens to the Anti-Money Laundering Act once they are technically transferable on a blockchain. This can occur at issuance or later. AML duties include identifying beneficial owners. The document also describes using a Swiss AML-supervised intermediary to receive funds and perform the relevant due diligence for the organiser. Sections 3.6–3.7.
Banking and collective-investment law can also apply. Repayment obligations may bring fundraising within deposit-taking rules, subject to applicable exceptions, while external management of collected assets can engage collective-investment legislation. These are consequences of the project’s structure under existing law. FINMA’s original regulatory guidance.
Enquiries and enforcement
The appendix requests information about the operators, financing, token rights, functionality, distribution and secondary trading. The 2018 text states that completed ICOs are assessed through investigations into potentially unauthorised activity. Enquiry scope and appendix. FINMA’s current procedure uses its survey and application platform, EHP; assessments are normally charged by fee. FINMA does not provide comprehensive legal advice or assess a business model’s commercial prospects. Current enquiry procedure.
Enforcement rests on financial-market legislation. Depending on the violation, FINMA can order corrective measures or the disgorgement of unlawful profits, or withdraw authorisation; serious cases can lead to liquidation. Its rulings can be challenged in court. The guidelines do not establish a separate ICO penalty schedule. FINMA enforcement powers.
Later developments and current status
The September 11, 2019 stablecoin supplement expressly retained the original ICO guidelines unchanged. Guidance 06/2024, dated July 26, 2024, added discussion of stablecoin risks, AML treatment and bank default guarantees.
The 2018 document also contains historical legal references. FinSA and FinIA entered into force on January 1, 2020, and the former directly subordinated financial intermediary category ended at the close of 2019. Its older references to draft prospectus legislation and direct AML supervision therefore require that later context. The continuing publication of the guidelines does not freeze the underlying law at its 2018 position.
