A Swiss industry initiative developing a Swiss franc-denominated stablecoin has moved into controlled live testing, marking a new stage for the Swiss Stablecoin Pilot. Financial market infrastructure operator SIX and digital payment app TWINT joined the project on Tuesday, 8 September, expanding the consortium beyond its original banking participants.
The pilot centres on CHFD, a Swiss franc stablecoin designed to maintain a one-to-one peg with the Swiss franc. While CHFD has been technically live within the project’s sandbox environment since the end of June, this new phase introduces controlled live testing with restricted users and transaction limits. Nine companies are now participating in the testing: UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, SIX, TWINT and Swiss Stablecoin AG.
The initiative was originally launched in April by the banking participants and has since broadened its scope with the addition of SIX and TWINT, whose respective expertise in financial market infrastructure and digital payments extends the programme’s reach across Switzerland’s financial ecosystem.
Applications Under Testing in the Swiss Stablecoin Pilot
The participating companies are testing several established and emerging applications within the controlled live environment. These include automated transactions between financial institutions, tokenised settlement of digital assets and programmable payments.
Programmable payments represent a particular area of focus. According to the project statement, participants will examine whether programmable transactions could reduce fraud risks on online marketplaces, support fairer access to event tickets and improve the efficiency of public payments. The CHFD stablecoin is intended to combine the stability of a currency-pegged digital asset with blockchain-based functionality, including faster and potentially automated transactions.
The initiative operates on the CHF stablecoin platform run by CHFD Infrastruktur AG, a subsidiary of Swiss Stablecoin AG. The project is expected to run through the end of 2026 and aims to establish where a Swiss franc stablecoin could deliver practical value while identifying the technical, operational and regulatory requirements that any future development would need to address.
Open Outcome and Next Steps
It is important to note that the Swiss Stablecoin Pilot does not represent a decision to launch a public Swiss franc stablecoin. The project statement made clear that the sandbox has an open outcome, with its core purpose being to gather practical experience before any decision regarding potential future development is taken.
The broader context for this initiative is the ongoing assessment by banks and financial institutions of how stablecoins and other blockchain-based assets could reshape payments and settlement processes. Stablecoins are digital assets generally designed to maintain a fixed value against a traditional currency, with dollar-denominated tokens currently accounting for much of the existing global market.
SIX’s participation brings deep knowledge of financial market infrastructure to the testing programme, while TWINT contributes its experience operating one of Switzerland’s most widely used digital payment platforms. Together, their involvement gives the Swiss Stablecoin Pilot additional coverage across both institutional finance and consumer-facing payments.
The partners are expected to publish an overview of their findings after the initiative concludes. Those results will help determine whether the technology meets practical requirements for broader application and what further steps would be necessary going forward.
