A Swiss-regulated crypto bank has teamed with a leading blockchain infrastructure provider to build a regulated “bridge” for tokenizing traditional financial assets. The move signals a major step in institutional finance embracing blockchain technology — while addressing compliance and custody concerns that have long slowed progress.
The partnership pairs a Swiss bank, under supervision by national financial regulators, with a blockchain platform specialised in tokenisation of securities, bonds and other real-world assets. The bank will provide regulated banking services and custody solutions for underlying traditional assets such as government bonds, corporate securities and treasury bills, while the tokenisation platform will handle the issuance, management and transfer of those assets in token form on public blockchains. Together, they aim to deliver a one-stop infrastructure that allows institutions to move from traditional assets into onchain tokens in a compliant, integrated manner.
Bridging banking and tokenization
One of the key innovations here is the use of a compliance-layer token standard (built atop a widely used token protocol) that enforces investor authorisation, issuer controls and regulatory logic onchain. This ensures that while tokens live on public ledgers, only permitted investors can hold or transfer them — marrying the openness of blockchain with the governance and control required in institutional finance.
By aligning the banking custody layer with the token infrastructure, the solution reduces the friction of building inhouse systems, significantly shortens time-to-market (from months to weeks) and lowers operational complexity for institutions exploring this space.
From a broader perspective, this collaboration reflects how tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs) is gaining traction. With institutional demand rising, financial firms are looking for scalable, compliant solutions to issue, manage and trade tokenised instruments — and this partnership addresses both the technology and regulatory gaps.
It also highlights the trend of banks moving beyond custody of crypto-assets to enabling tokenisation and managing hybrid asset flows (traditional ↔ onchain). That said, challenges remain: while infrastructure is being built, market dynamics, liquidity, secondary markets and regulatory harmonisation still lag. Institutions will watch execution, particularly how smoothly the bank and token-platform integrate, how custodied assets map to tokens, and how regulatory risk is managed.
In summary, the alliance creates a credible path for financial firms to engage in tokenised finance via a regulated bridge — but success will depend on seamless integration, regulatory clarity and actual institutional uptake.
