SIX, the operator of the Swiss (and partly the Spanish) financial market infrastructure, has been authorized to merge its digital central securities depository, SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), with SIX SIS. The resulting consolidated Central Securities Depository (CSD) will also be able to offer crypto custody solutions, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

This step was made possible by Finma, which granted SIX the necessary approval.

Same Infrastructure for Traditional and Digital Assets

Financial institutions will now be able to use the same regulated infrastructure for crypto custody as is used for traditional securities, SIX said. This provides legal certainty as well as operational resilience. The move establishes an integrated and regulated post-trade infrastructure for both traditional and digital assets.

Rafael Moral Santiago, Head Securities Services and Member of the Executive Board at SIX, commented: «By extending our CSD infrastructure to include crypto custody solutions and integrating digital asset functionalities into our core business, we are combining innovation in digital assets with the regulatory certainty and operational robustness of an established financial market infrastructure. This marks a milestone on our path to becoming a pan-European provider of integrated, digital post-trade solutions by 2030.»

Grand Ambitions and a Less Glamorous Reality

When SIX launched its flagship project SDX in 2019 (operations only began in 2021; the start was slow, and the project proved costly and resource-intensive), it pursued far more ambitious goals. For a long time, it also appeared that SDX—based on distributed ledger technology and tokenization—would eventually replace the conventional, centralized SIX trading platform and thereby technologically revolutionize the Swiss value chain.

However, things turned out differently: in March 2025, SIX announced that SDX would be integrated into the Securities Services business unit.

In January 2026, Finma outlined its view in a supervisory communication on how to manage the risks of crypto custody. The secure safekeeping of crypto assets has long been regarded in the industry as a key competitive factor.