Dear friends of the Swiss Blockchain Federation

The Swiss Crypto Valley continues to grow – as shown by the recently published CV VC Crypto Valley Report, which lists around 1700 blockchain companies. This growth is encouraging. At the same time, however, it is clear that Switzerland is coming under increasing pressure in an international comparison. While other countries are specifically creating innovation-friendly framework conditions, we continue to struggle with regulatory uncertainties.

One of the biggest drivers is the USA. In mid-June, the Senate passed the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins) with a strong majority, creating nationwide rules for stablecoins for the first time: 100 % reserve cover in liquid, secure assets (such as US Treasuries), monthly audit reports and protection for users in the event of insolvency. Stablecoins are important for the economy because they enable fast, significantly cheaper and stable digital payments.

According to a study by the International Monetary Fund, the fees for a classic 200-dollar foreign transfer can be up to over 10% depending on the country and provider, while transactions with stablecoins often only cost a few cents to less than 1 US dollar in practice.

For Switzerland, the GENIUS Act means increased competitive and innovation pressure in the stablecoin regulatory environment as well as the incentive to develop its own future-oriented legal framework in order to avoid competitive disadvantages – especially in light of the fact that various players in Switzerland have had ready-to-use stablecoin projects in the pipeline for years.

This makes the commitment of the Swiss Blockchain Federation all the more important: together with our members, partners and other industry representatives, we have published intensively in recent months, networked and conducted a dialogue between politics, business and science more actively than ever before. We are in close dialogue with parliamentarians from various parties and the administration. Our policy working group helps us to present our concerns in a targeted and effective manner. We inform, explain and argue.

An important signal came from Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, who was open and forward-looking at our event with 30 blockchain pioneers, parliamentarians and representatives of the cantons in the Federal Palace on 16 June. With the 12-point manifesto launched together with other associations, we also have a concrete plan on the table for how we want to keep the Swiss innovation and financial centre fit for the future and successful.

We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter!