SIX and Twint join Swiss franc stablecoin sandbox as testing begins

Switzerland’s franc-pegged stablecoin sandbox entered its formal testing phase on September 8, with the financial market infrastructure operator SIX and the payment app Twint joining as new partners, according to a statement issued in Zurich by UBS. The addition brings the consortium to nine Swiss institutions.

The initiative launched in April 2026 with UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zurich Cantonal Bank, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise and Swiss Stablecoin AG. The token at the centre of the project, called CHFD, has been technically live inside the controlled sandbox environment since the end of June, maintaining a one-to-one peg with the Swiss franc on a platform run by CHFD Infrastruktur AG, a subsidiary of Swiss Stablecoin AG.

SIX operates the Swiss Stock Exchange and core post-trade infrastructure for the country’s financial system, while Twint is the dominant mobile payment app in Switzerland. “SIX and TWINT have joined the CHF stablecoin initiative launched in April 2026 as new partners. They contribute additional expertise in financial market infrastructure and digital payment solutions,” UBS said in the statement.

The sandbox is testing use cases across two categories, according to the statement. The first covers applications already established internationally, such as automated transactions between financial institutions and tokenised settlement of digital assets. The second focuses on programmable payments specific to the Swiss market, including whether programmability can reduce fraud risk on online marketplaces, support fairer access to event tickets, and streamline the disbursement of public funds.

The partners stressed the sandbox is an open-ended trial rather than a decision to launch a commercial CHF stablecoin, according to Crowdfund Insider. The testing phase is expected to run through the end of 2026, after which the group plans to publish a summary of its findings. No public launch or commercial availability has been committed.

The dollar remains dominant in the global stablecoin market. Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC together account for more than 250 billion dollars in market capitalisation, according to MoneyToday, and central bank officials in several jurisdictions have flagged the risk of dollar-denominated tokens displacing local currencies in payments. A Swiss franc stablecoin backed by the country’s core banking and payments infrastructure would test whether a non-dollar token can gain traction domestically.