Swiss National Bank Extends Wholesale CBDC Pilot to Mid-2027

Swiss National Bank Extends Wholesale CBDC Pilot to Mid-2027, Adds BX Digital for Settlement Trials

  • The Swiss National Bank (SNB) extended its wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) pilot to mid-2027.
  • The pilot runs on the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) platform and has been in a production environment since December 2023.
  • BX Digital, a subsidiary of Boerse Stuttgart, will gain production access to SNB settlement through a direct connection with the SNB’s SIC payment system.
  • The wCBDC pilot is part of Project Helvetia III, and the SNB has not committed to a full rollout.
  • The SNB is evaluating settlement options, including solutions similar to the Bundesbank’s model, to draw comparisons in a real-world setting.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has extended its wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) pilot program by another year, pushing the pilot’s end date to mid-2027. The pilot, which operates through the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) platform, first processed a tokenized transaction settlement in December 2023. The extension follows a recent decision in June 2024 to prolong the pilot for two more years.

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The SNB confirmed it will also provide production environment access to BX Digital, a digital exchange subsidiary of Boerse Stuttgart. BX Digital plans to connect directly to the SNB’s SIC payment system for transaction settlements. This approach is similar to the Bundesbank’s “trigger solution,” which was used in recent ECB wholesale DLT settlement trials.

Both settlement pathways had previously been tested during the initial phase of Project Helvetia. Now, the SNB aims to observe if outcomes differ when these are implemented in a live production setting. The bank continues to label its wCBDC efforts as a pilot under Project Helvetia III and clarified that no decision has been made about a full-scale launch.

The wCBDC enables the settlement of tokenized financial transactions—where traditional assets are converted into digital tokens—on distributed ledger platforms. The SNB’s approach allows it to compare different connections and operational frameworks in Switzerland’s digital asset market.

Additional information about a possible third settlement path was mentioned, but further details are available only to subscribers of the full report.

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