The Crypto Valley Association (CVA) is the non-profit association that has brought together, since 2017, the blockchain companies and professionals based in Switzerland, around Zug. Funded solely by its membership fees, it claims more than 800 individual members, more than 120 startups and more than 45 SMEs and large companies. It operates through eleven working groups, two regional chapters, two annual conferences and responses to federal consultations. It does not publish the Crypto Valley Top 50 report: that report comes from CV VC, a separate Zug-based investor.
What is the Crypto Valley Association for?
The CVA presents itself as the organisation defending the interests of the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. On its "About" page, it describes itself as an independent, non-governmental association, created in 2017 to develop and promote the hub born in Zug. The history of this hub, launched in 2013 by Johann Gevers, founder of Monetas, is told in our page on Crypto Valley Zug.
It is funded only by its members' fees and runs on volunteers and a small team. Its historical timeline places in 2017 a round table with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) on the classification of tokens.
Who are the members of the Crypto Valley Association?
The CVA home page gives three figures: more than 800 individual members, more than 120 startups and more than 45 SMEs and large companies. It also speaks of an "ecosystem" of 51,000 people, then of 41,000 further down the same page: its wider network, not its fee-paying members. Its networking portal, for its part, announces more than 250 companies and more than 900 members, figures that do not match the previous ones.
Among the member companies named on the site are Bitcoin Suisse, a Zug-based crypto provider, the banks Sygnum and AMINA, the audit firm PwC, the Cardano Foundation and the exchange operator CME Group. The CVA mentions partnerships with ETH Zurich and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU).
Who runs the association?
Eight board members, elected every year, set the strategy. According to the "About" page, Jérôme Bailly chairs the board, with Emi Lorincz as vice-president in charge of international growth and Ilya Volkov as vice-president in charge of strategy. Maxim Kon, Marcel Harmann, Benedek Orban, Paolo Bortolin and Sheraz Ahmed complete the board.
Execution falls to an executive team of four people, led by Nikoletta Csanyi, executive director. In his message to members of 14 January 2026, Jérôme Bailly states that the association has taken on a new bank (Zuger Kantonalbank) and a new crypto custodian (Bitcoin Suisse).
What do the working groups actually do?
The working groups are, according to the CVA, the "beating heart" of the association. They meet regularly, publish white papers and organise events. The dedicated page lists eleven of them:
- Anti-money laundering and compliance.
- Cybersecurity: on 22 December 2025, this group published its first "CVA Security Watch" on the hacks of the fourth quarter of 2025.
- Dispute resolution: mediation between members and with third parties.
- Education.
- Institutional: exchanges, custodians, trading platforms, market makers.
- Investors: connecting member startups with qualified investors.
- On-chain finance: uses of blockchain in traditional financial institutions.
- Regulation: defending an "optimal" regulatory framework and engaging with regulators.
- Startups and venture capital.
- Sustainability: blockchain and sustainable development goals.
- Tax and accounting of digital assets.
Two regional chapters are added to these: Latin America and western Switzerland, which covers Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel and Fribourg. According to the message of 14 January 2026, the CVA held its first major event in Lugano in March 2025, but its meetings are increasingly held in Zurich.
On the events side, the Crypto Valley Conference remains the annual gathering, in Rotkreuz in the canton of Zug; the Web3 Banking Symposium, announced for 2 March 2026 at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, targets banks; the CVA published a report on it on 27 March 2026. The "Made in Crypto Valley" initiative connects startups and investors.
Key figures
- 800 individual members, 120 startups and 45 SMEs and large companies, at least (CVA, home page).
- 11 working groups, 2 regional chapters, 8 board members and an executive team of 4 people (CVA).
- 100 francs per year for an individual member, 500 for a startup, 2,500 for an SME, 5,000 for a large company (CVA, membership page).
- 1,766 active blockchain companies in the Crypto Valley, of which 41% in Zug (CV VC, 15 April 2026, 2025 data, reported by 2clics).
- 728 million dollars raised in 2025 in 31 deals, or 47% of European blockchain funding (CV VC).
- 39.35 million francs over five years from the canton of Zug for blockchain research (canton of Zug, 8 May 2024).
How does the CVA weigh on FINMA and the Confederation?
The CVA has no regulatory power: it acts through position statements. On 22 October 2025, the Federal Council opened a consultation on stablecoins and crypto-asset services, which closed on 6 February 2026. According to Jérôme Bailly's message of 14 January 2026, the association created an ad hoc working group to respond to it, led by Maxim Kon and by Katharina Lasota Heller, chair of the regulation group.
It does not speak alone. Its response to the revision of the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA), published on 21 January 2026 and submitted to the State Secretariat for International Finance, takes up the position of the Swiss Blockchain Federation. In it, the CVA calls for proportionate, risk-based regulation, "clear and workable" rules for stablecoins that do not restrict other payment tokens, consistent definitions of tokens, anti-money laundering requirements suited to self-hosted wallets and the retention of the self-regulatory organisation regime.
The context makes this lobbying more sensitive. In its first ranking, presented on 3 November 2026, the Swiss Blockchain Federation places Swiss blockchain in sixth place out of fifteen financial centres and criticises the length of FINMA's procedures. The day before, the head of Bitcoin Suisse, a CVA member, judged the Swiss crypto hub to be in decline.
What is the link between the CVA and the canton of Zug?
The canton no longer appears among the members named on the CVA website, but it invests on its own. According to its press release of 8 May 2024, the canton of Zug is funding, to the tune of 39.35 million francs over five years, the "Blockchain Zug – Joint Research Initiative", carried by the University of Lucerne and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The Zug cantonal parliament adopted the project on 29 February 2024.
The project creates a Zug blockchain research institute at the University of Lucerne, with nine new chairs. The canton also sits on the Swiss Blockchain Federation, with six other cantons, according to that federation's website.
CVA, CV VC, Swiss Blockchain Federation: who does what?
| Organisation | Nature | What it does | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crypto Valley Association (CVA) | Non-profit association, funded by membership fees | Working groups, conferences, position statements, matching startups with investors | cryptovalley.swiss |
| CV VC | Venture capital firm, Zug | Invests in blockchain startups; publishes the Crypto Valley Top 50 & Ecosystem Report every year | CV VC, 15 April 2026, reported by 2clics |
| Swiss Blockchain Federation (SBF) | Public-private partnership, Bern | Represents the industry before the Federal Council, Parliament, the cantons and FINMA; seven member cantons | blockchainfederation.ch |
According to its membership page, the CVA charges 100 francs per year to an individual member, 500 to a startup with fewer than 20 employees, 2,500 to an SME with 20 to 150 employees and 5,000 above that. The SBF is more expensive: 1,000 francs for an individual, 2,000 for a startup, 6,000 for a company and 7,000 for a canton or a bank. For an SME in French-speaking Switzerland, the CVA offers a matchmaking portal, a French-speaking chapter and working groups; the SBF serves above all to weigh on legislation. The other players in the Zug hub are followed in our Crypto Valley section.
What we do not know yet
- The CVA's accounts: it says it lives on its membership fees alone, but publishes no accounts on its presentation pages or in the news items consulted.
- The exact number of member companies: the site gives minimums, not a list.
Sources
- Crypto Valley Association, home page
- Crypto Valley Association, "About Us"
- Crypto Valley Association, "Working Groups & Regional Chapters"
- Crypto Valley Association, "Join Us" (membership fees)
- Crypto Valley Association, chairman's message to members, 14 January 2026
- Crypto Valley Association, response to the revision of the FinIA, 21 January 2026
- Canton of Zug, press release of 8 May 2024
- Swiss Blockchain Federation, home page