Quiz: Swiss Digital Finance Strategy

Question 1

The Swiss DLT Act entered into force (final provisions, DLT trading facility) on:

(A) 1 January 2020
(B) 1 February 2021
(C) 30 December 2024
(D) 1 January 2026

Answer: (B) See the lecture for the worked reasoning.

Question 2

The DLT Act amended how many existing Swiss federal laws?

(A) 1 (created a new standalone act)
(B) 3
(C) 9
(D) 15

Answer: (C) : CO, Banking Act, FMIA, CISA, and others; no new standalone law created

Question 3

Under the DLT Act, a "DLT security" is:

(A) A legally recognised security whose ownership and transfer is recorded on a DLT system
(B) Any digital asset stored on a blockchain
(C) A government-issued digital currency
(D) A utility token that pays gas fees, with no investor rights or Swiss securities law recognition

Answer: (A) : New category in Swiss Code of Obligations with same legal force as traditional securities

Question 4

What is the primary consumer protection innovation of the DLT Act regarding insolvency?

(A) The Swiss National Bank guarantees all crypto assets at licensed custodians up to CHF 100,000 per depositor
(B) Exchanges must hold 150% reserves
(C) Crypto is insured by esisuisse (Swiss deposit insurance)
(D) Client crypto assets held by a licensed custodian are segregated and returned in full if the custodian fails

Answer: (D) : Segregation: client crypto is not owned by the custodian; never absorbed into the creditor pool

Question 5

The DLT trading facility licence (new FINMA category under DLT Act) was first granted to:

(A) Coinbase Europe
(B) SIX Swiss Exchange (parent of SDX, which had existing securities infrastructure)
(C) Amina Bank
(D) SDX (SIX Digital Exchange)

Answer: (D) : first regulated DLT securities exchange globally

Question 6

The FINMA Regulatory Sandbox allows a startup to accept deposits without a licence up to:

(A) CHF 100k
(B) CHF 1M
(C) CHF 10M
(D) CHF 100M

Answer: (B) : max 20 clients, 12 months duration, no FINMA licence required

Question 7

The FINMA Fintech Licence (Tier 2) requires minimum capital of:

(A) CHF 100k
(B) CHF 300k
(C) CHF 3M
(D) CHF 10M

Answer: (B) : allows up to CHF 100M deposits without maturity transformation

Question 8

Amina Bank and Sygnum Bank hold which FINMA licence tier?

(A) Tier 1 Sandbox
(B) Tier 2 Fintech Licence
(C) Tier 3 Full Banking Licence
(D) No licence (DeFi protocols are exempt)

Answer: (C) : first crypto-native banks globally to receive it (2019)

Question 9

A FINMA no-action letter is best described as:

(A) A binding written response typically within 10 business days confirming whether a product requires a licence
(B) A public statement that FINMA will take no action against a firm for a specified period
(C) A non-binding guidance document issued sector-wide rather than to a specific firm
(D) A waiver of the sandbox deposit limits

Answer: (A) : 10 business days (typically), free, binding; the most practical tool for reducing legal uncertainty

Question 10

FINMA's 2018 token taxonomy classifies tokens that represent ownership of assets or profit rights as:

(A) Payment tokens, accepted as means of exchange without conferring profit rights
(B) Utility tokens
(C) Hybrid tokens
(D) Asset tokens

Answer: (D) : full securities law applies; require prospectus for public offers

Question 11

SDX achieves "T+0 settlement." In traditional securities markets, the standard settlement period is:

(A) T+0
(B) T+1
(C) T+2
(D) T+5

Answer: (C) : SDX reduces this to same-day, eliminating 2 days of counterparty risk

Question 12

Project Helvetia (SNB + BIS + SDX) demonstrated that:

(A) Swiss commercial banks can issue their own digital franc tokens independently under an SNB framework
(B) Swiss banks no longer need to hold SNB reserves
(C) DeFi protocols can be directly connected to the SNB
(D) SNB wholesale CBDC can settle real financial transactions, making Switzerland the first country to do so

Answer: (D) : Phase 3 (2023-24): live settlement of real bonds using SNB wCBDC, first globally

Question 13

Why did Switzerland choose wholesale CBDC rather than retail CBDC?

(A) Technology for retail CBDC does not yet exist
(B) EU regulations prohibit retail CBDCs
(C) Retail CBDC poses too high a disintermediation risk to Swiss commercial banks
(D) The SNB lacks the technical infrastructure to safely issue digital money to the public

Answer: (C) : SNB's stated reasoning: protect commercial banks' deposit-taking function

Question 14

The Swiss Federal Council rejected the Libra/Diem stablecoin project in 2020 primarily because:

(A) It would create a private currency competing directly with the Swiss franc
(B) The technology was not ready for global deployment
(C) FINMA had not approved Libra's smart contract architecture
(D) Swiss commercial banks lobbied the Federal Council to reject it in favour of a domestic stablecoin

Answer: (A) : Libra threatened monetary sovereignty: a private global stablecoin controlled by Facebook would compete with the CHF

Question 15

SIF's target for tokenised assets in Switzerland by 2030 is approximately:

(A) CHF 10B
(B) CHF 100B
(C) CHF 500B
(D) CHF 1T

Answer: (B) : Pillar 8 (Asset Tokenisation) target from December 2025 strategy

Question 16

The US approach to crypto regulation is best characterised as:

(A) Archetype 1 (Ban)
(B) Archetype 2 (Enforce-first)
(C) Archetype 3 (Legislate-first)
(D) Archetype 4 (Ignore)

Answer: (B) : apply existing law (Howey 1946); let courts define crypto categories

Question 17

The key difference between Switzerland and MiCA regarding legal certainty timing is:

(A) Switzerland provides certainty only after litigation; MiCA requires mandatory classification filing 12 months before launch
(B) MiCA provides more certainty than Switzerland for DeFi protocols
(C) They use identical frameworks
(D) Both provide pre-launch certainty; Switzerland's proportionality system is faster and cheaper for small firms

Answer: (D) : Both provide pre-launch category certainty; Switzerland's advantage is FINMA proportionality and no-action speed

Question 18

FATF grey-listing of a jurisdiction typically causes crypto firms to:

(A) Lose access to global correspondent banking and face enhanced due diligence
(B) Receive enhanced marketing opportunities from FATF
(C) Access a FATF fast-track compliance certification programme, reducing compliance overhead
(D) Automatically receive FINMA supervision

Answer: (A) : Grey-listing triggers enhanced due diligence from foreign banks; disrupts fiat on/off ramps

Question 19

Switzerland's DLT Act insolvency segregation provision directly addresses which historical crypto failure?

(A) Mt. Gox hack (2014), where 850,000 BTC were stolen from exchange wallets
(B) Terra/Luna collapse (2022)
(C) FTX bankruptcy (2022), where customer funds were mixed with company assets
(D) Beanstalk flash loan attack (2022)

Answer: (C) : DLT Act segregation is the legal mechanism that makes an FTX-style loss legally impossible in Switzerland

Question 20

The central thesis of the Swiss Digital Finance Strategy is best summarised as:

(A) Switzerland is the most permissive crypto regime globally, with no restrictions on retail trading or DeFi
(B) Switzerland will replace the US as the dominant crypto market by 2030
(C) Switzerland has banned all non-licensed crypto activity
(D) Switzerland's advantage is legal certainty: knowing the rules before you build

Answer: (D) : "Not permissive: CLEAR. Legal certainty is the product."