Overview
On 16 February 2018, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory
Authority FINMA has published guidelines
(Guidelines) for enquiries regarding the
regulatory framework for initial coin offerings
(ICOs)1. The Guidelines complement the
earlier FINMA Guidance 04/2017 of 29 September 2017 which
highlighted areas in which ICOs may be covered by existing Swiss
financial market law.
The new Guidelines provide insights on how FINMA intends to
apply the Swiss financial market legislation when handling
enquiries from ICO organisers about the applicability of such
legislation to ICOs, particularly in terms of licensing
requirements. More precisely, the Guidelines set forth the enquiry
procedure, including the minimum information required by FINMA to
process specific enquiries, and outline the legal principles FINMA
intends to apply when assessing such enquiries.
