As the financial industry continues its digital transformation, SIX is taking decisive steps to integrate digital assets into its core business. Following the integration of SDX within SIX Securities Services Business Unit, we sat down with Michele Curtoni, Head of Digital Assets Strategy, and Marco Kessler, Head Product and Business Development for Digital Assets, to discuss how SIX is scaling its digital asset capabilities, the value this brings to clients, and what lies ahead for the future of institutional digital finance.
Hi Michele and Marco! Following the integration of SDX into the SIX Securities Services Business Unit, what role do digital assets play within SIX today, and how is that role evolving?
Michele Curtoni: Digital assets are a central part of the SIX strategy. Over the past years, we have focused on building SDX’s digital securities offering as the foundation of our digital asset strategy within the post-trade business. By integrating SDX into the broader Securities Services unit, we are now scaling that foundation so all clients can access what we have built. We do not believe in silos. Digital assets are about ecosystems. By embedding SDX’s digital capabilities into Securities Services, we ensure that our customers can benefit from a seamless experience across traditional and digital assets. Beyond this, we have worked on numerous pilots on wholesale CBDC across Switzerland and Europe, and we cover crypto and stablecoin services, including crypto custody in Switzerland, and our joint venture with SBI in Singapore, AsiaNext. Together, these areas – digital securities, crypto and stablecoins – form the backbone of our growth ambitions. From a geographic perspective, our ambition is to expand across Europe.
Marco Kessler: SIX was an early mover in this space. The decision to invest in digital assets was made in 2018 with the creation of SDX, the world’s first DLT-based regulated financial market infrastructure. Since then, we have built significant expertise and strong networks. This experience now allows us to apply the capabilities developed at SDX, particularly in post-trade and CSD operations, across other areas of SIX. For example, we are exploring how digital asset innovation can support the data business by offering services such as asset classification, data distribution, and regulatory or tax data for digital assets. This approach ensures that digital innovation can benefit multiple parts of SIX and its clients.
SDX has recently been integrated into the business unit Securities Services. How does this strengthen SIX’s digital asset capabilities?
Michele Curtoni: Integration is how we scale impact. By bringing SDX into Securities Services, we are making unique capabilities – including our digital CSD, custody, tokenization, and digital bond issuance – available to the entire client base. This means, for example, that clients of our Spanish CSD, will be able to access these digital solutions. Projects we have already launched with partners such as Pictet and Citi can now reach a broader client base. In practice, clients will have a single entry point into SIX, giving them access to a wide range of offerings, many of which are powered by digital assets, what we call “one plug, two worlds.”
Marco Kessler: Until now, SDX operated as a separate unit within SIX. Integrating it into Securities Services marks an important milestone. It reflects maturity and scalability. This integration allows us to bridge traditional and digital finance more effectively. We can now apply digital capabilities such as tokenization, collateral mobility, and DLT-based asset servicing across the full spectrum of assets managed by Securities Services, both in Switzerland and Spain. Once innovation has proven itself, the right step is to bring it into the core business so that every client and asset class can benefit.
What are the main business areas SIX is focusing on across digital assets, from infrastructure to crypto services?
Michele Curtoni: We are focusing on three main areas: tokenizing traditional assets, providing custody for crypto and stablecoins as a tangible revenue stream, and acting as a strategic partner to the SNB. Together, they form a comprehensive offering that spans both traditional and emerging digital markets.
Marco Kessler: On the services side, we are focused on crypto custody and staking, as well as on partnerships with execution venues such as RULEMATCH in Switzerland. Institutional clients can use our custody solution to safely store and manage their tokens and cryptocurrencies and then trade on RULEMATCH, while posting collateral in SDX’s secure custody accounts, in a streamlined process. Looking ahead, we also see strong potential in securities financing, particularly in the area of digital collateral and 24/7 collateral mobility.
What value does SIX aim to provide to institutional clients through its digital asset offering?
Michele Curtoni: Two key elements stand out: FMI standards such as excellence and efficiency, as well as stability and regulation. Excellence because our digital platform has already been trusted by leading partners such as the Swiss National Bank, UBS, the World Bank, Pictet, and Citi. For example, the World Bank issued a CHF 200 million digital bond on SDX after a rigorous due diligence process. This demonstrates the strength and reliability of what we have built. Efficiency because integrating digital capabilities across Securities Services unlocks new synergies. For instance, digital collateral can now be mobilized across clearing, repo, and CSD services, something that is only possible when platforms are connected.
Marco Kessler: I would add trust and network. SIX is a regulated financial market infrastructure for Switzerland and Spain, so we bring institutional-grade security and compliance. The market is currently fragmented, with many smaller ecosystems or consortia emerging. SIX offers a broad, trusted network that connects participants and allows clients to access multiple services through a single connection. That connectivity and scale are powerful advantages for institutional clients.
From your perspective, where do you see the most immediate growth opportunities in digital assets for SIX and its clients?
Michele Curtoni: On the crypto side, regulated custody is where we see the most immediate opportunity, particularly as the industry evolves under regulatory frameworks such as MiCA in Europe. Institutions are looking for trusted, licensed providers. On the securities side, we have moved past the proof-of-concept stage. Clients now want tangible financial benefits, whether that means reducing costs or generating new revenue. Scaling use cases such as bond issuance, tokenization, and fractionalization across more clients is where the next wave of growth will come from.
Marco Kessler: I see two categories of growth. One is using digital technology to improve existing services, making them faster, simpler, better and more scalable. The other is creating entirely new products and services in partnership with banks and other industry players such as asset and wealth managers who are responding to growing demand for digital assets. This journey is what we have done, for example, with our partnerships with Citi and Pictet. Overall, it is about extending what already works and expanding where innovation brings clear value to the market. Our clients increasingly recognize the disruptive potential of digital transformation and the opportunities it creates. Our role is to enable efficiency and growth for them, helping institutions harness this transformation to deliver new and better services to their own customers.
What types of clients or market segments do you believe will benefit most from SIX’s digital asset capabilities over the next few years?
Michele Curtoni: Today, most of our work is with banks and financial institutions, but we are seeing increasing interest from asset managers and other buy-side participants , who are increasingly exploring digitalization as a way to evolve their business models. They stand to benefit from new liquidity opportunities, tokenized products, and more efficient market infrastructures.
Marco Kessler: For banks and custodians, digital assets provide an opportunity to simplify their platforms and reduce complexity. Some services that banks currently operate internally could be standardized and offered by an FMI such as SIX, reducing their overall costs and improving efficiency. For asset and wealth managers, there is growing interest in infrastructure-level services that complement what their custodian banks already provide. This could include support for portfolio management workflows or digital money market fund structures. The goal is always to complement, not compete with, the offering of our existing clients.
SIX has already taken part in key projects like digital bond issuance and the SNB’s Project Helvetia. What are the next milestones?
Marco Kessler: Project Helvetia, led by the Swiss National Bank, has been extended until June 2027 to continue exploring wholesale CBDC use cases. We are investigating how wCBDC could provide significant improvements to capital markets and which novel use cases such a token could enable. The partnership with SNB is one of the pillars of our digital strategy. We are also preparing to launch our pre-IPO share tokenization project with Citi, which aims to improve investor access to private markets. At the same time, we are building on the success of our pilot with Pictet by bringing additional asset managers and banks into the next phase.
Michele Curtoni: From a group perspective, the next phase is all about scaling. This means expanding digital bond issuance to more clients, rolling out tokenization and custody services across the group. We are moving from pilots to production at scale.
Finally, what excites you most about the direction SIX is taking in digital assets, and what should clients and partners expect?
Michele Curtoni: What excites me most is that we are breaking down silos. Clients will soon have a single access point to issuance, custody, collateral, and trading, all integrated across SIX.
And this is just the beginning. Starting from Securities Services, we see huge potential to expand digital asset capabilities into trading, data, and other parts of the SIX value chain. Clients can expect more services, more integration, and more opportunities to benefit from the digital future of capital markets.
Marco Kessler: I share that excitement. SIX was among the first institutions globally to take digital assets seriously, and that early investment is now paying off. With the entire group embracing and scaling these capabilities, we can deliver more innovation and more value to clients and partners. When you combine infrastructure strength, regulatory reliability, and a strong innovation mindset, you get the ideal foundation for the next chapter of digital finance. Clients and partners can expect deeper integration, stronger collaboration, and more opportunities to shape the future of capital markets together with us.
Thank you, Michele and Marco, for this insightful discussion!
