Crypto wallets: keeping coins safe in Switzerland

A crypto wallet is not a purse with bitcoin inside. Coins only exist on the blockchain. What a wallet stores is the private keyA secret number used to sign transactions. Whoever knows it can spend the coins. – and whoever controls that key controls the money. So the first question is not "which app?" but "who holds the key: me or somebody else?"

In Switzerland you have three options: let a bank or exchange hold your coins, use a wallet app on your phone, or buy a hardware wallet. This page compares them, gives CHF prices where manufacturers publish them, and explains how to store your recovery words so that neither burglars, nor a burst pipe, nor your heirs end up with a problem.

Custodial or self-custody

Custodial means a bank or exchange holds the keys and you see a balance. That is the model at PostFinance, the cantonal banks, Swissquote and most crypto apps. The upsides: you cannot lose a password for good, there is customer support, and your heirs will find the coins on a statement. The downsides: the provider can freeze accounts, fail or restrict withdrawals. At PostFinance, ZKB and Zuger KB you cannot send coins to your own wallet at all; LUKB charges CHF 80 per transfer and Swissquote USD 10–15. The full comparison is on crypto banks in Switzerland.

Self-custody means only you hold the keys, backed up by a seed phraseA list of usually 12 or 24 words from which all of a wallet’s keys can be restored. Whoever has it controls the coins.. Nobody can freeze your coins – but nobody can recover them either if you lose the words or give them to a scammer. Since the 2021 DLT law, crypto held by a Swiss custodian can in principle be segregated if it goes bust, though Yuh itself notes there is little case law. Self-custody sidesteps that question.

Hot or cold

A hot walletA wallet whose keys sit on an internet-connected device, usually a phone app or browser extension. is an app on your phone or a browser extension. It is handy for payments, but every connected device can be attacked. A cold walletKeeping keys offline, for example on a hardware wallet that signs transactions inside the device. keeps the keys offline. A hardware wallet signs every transaction internally, and you confirm it on its own screen.

A simple rule of thumb: keep on your phone what you would carry in your pocket. Anything whose loss would keep you awake belongs on a hardware wallet.

Hardware wallets compared

BitBox02 Nova (Shift Crypto, Adliswil)

The BitBox is Switzerland’s best-known hardware wallet. Its maker, Shift Crypto AG, is based in Adliswil just outside Zurich, and the datasheet gives Switzerland as the country of origin. The current BitBox02 Nova comes in a Bitcoin-only and a Multi edition. The Multi edition supports bitcoin, Ethereum with ERC-20 tokens and other EVM networks, Cardano and Litecoin – but not Solana, XRP or Dogecoin. New are Bluetooth and a certified secure chip; the backup can be written to a microSD card or shown as a word list. Firmware and the BitBoxApp are open source.

We could not confirm the CHF price because the shop blocked our requests; German retailers list the Nova from around EUR 175. More in our BitBox review.

Trezor Safe 3, 5 and 7

Prague-based Trezor publishes CHF prices in its official shop: Safe 3 CHF 49, Safe 5 CHF 119, Safe 7 CHF 229. All three come in Universal and Bitcoin-only editions, each with an EAL6+ certified secure element – two in the Safe 7. The standard backup is 20 words, with an option to move to a multi-share backup. The older Model One and Model T are no longer sold but are due to get security updates until at least 2036. Trezor explicitly advises buying only from its official shop or authorised resellers (Trezor review). If you order from a shop abroad instead, Swiss import VAT and courier fees may be added.

Ledger: popular, with a history

Paris-based Ledger is the biggest name. Its shop lists US dollar prices: Nano S Plus USD 69, Nano X USD 99 (possibly a promotion; previously USD 149), Nano Gen5 USD 179, Flex USD 249, Stax USD 399. We could not confirm CHF prices. Three episodes are worth knowing:

• 2020 data breach: in June 2020 outsiders accessed Ledger’s marketing database, exposing around one million email addresses. In December 2020 the names, postal addresses and phone numbers of about 272,000 customers were published on a hacking forum, followed by phishing waves and even threats.
• Ledger Recover: an optional subscription that encrypts your seed phrase and splits it into three shares held by Ledger, Coincover and EscrowTech. Its announcement in May 2023 drew heavy criticism because it showed that firmware can, in principle, extract the words from the device.
• Tampered devices, 2026: in October 2026 Ledger confirmed a hardware implant in devices sold by the Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis. Ledger’s own channels were not affected, but the built-in genuine check cannot detect such an implant. Media estimates put losses at USD 86–102 million; Ledger has not confirmed a figure.

The lesson for buyers in Switzerland: buy Ledger only on ledger.com or from authorised resellers, never second-hand. More in our Ledger review.

Tangem (Zug)

Tangem AG, on Baarerstrasse in Zug, sells credit-card-sized wallets: you tap the card on your phone and the app talks to it over NFC. A two-card set costs USD 54.90, a three-card set USD 69.90. The extra cards act as backups – lose one and the others still work. Tangem itself says it provides only hardware and non-custodial software and is not regulated.

Wallet apps for everyday use

Self-custodyYou hold the private keys yourself; no provider can freeze or access your coins. also works without extra hardware, as an app:

• Relai (Zurich, VQF member): bitcoin only. The app creates a 12-word wallet, and Relai says it never holds your bitcoin. Purchases from CHF 50 for 1% (Relai review).
• Bridge Wallet (Mt Pelerin, Geneva, SO-FIT member): around 30 tokens on several networks, bought by SIC transfer in francs or with cash at a Swiss Post counter using a QR bill (Mt Pelerin review).
• Exodus: multi-coin wallet for desktop and mobile, with keys encrypted locally. The company has been listed on NYSE American since December 2024; in-app swaps start at 0.5% (Exodus review).
• Trust Wallet: multi-coin app owned by Binance. In December 2025, version 2.68 of its Chrome extension contained malicious code; around USD 7 million was stolen and Binance pledged compensation.
• Phantom: self-custodial, best known as a wallet for Solana.

The Trust Wallet case makes the point: browser extensions are the most exposed form of wallet. Large amounts do not belong there.

Your seed phrase is the real security question

Most losses are not caused by hacked hardware but by recovery words that were lost or handed over. No manufacturer, support desk or authority will ever ask for them. Anyone who does is a scammer – typical tricks are described in crypto scams in Switzerland.

• Write the words by hand on paper during setup – never photograph them or store them in the cloud, email or a notes app
• Transfer them later to a steel plate that survives fire and water
• Keep two copies in two places, for example at home and in a bank safe deposit box
• Test a recovery with a small amount before moving larger sums
• Optionally add a passphrase as a 25th word – and store it separately from the words
• Never type the words into a website or app you reached via a link
• Buy hardware wallets new and from the official shop; throw away any pre-filled word list

A bank safe deposit box is a very Swiss solution: the bank does not know what is inside, and a fire or burglary at home cannot reach both copies. If you keep part of the backup outside your home, a multi-share backup like Trezor’s means a single share is not enough to reach the coins.

Travel rule: why exchanges check your wallet

With its Guidance 02/2019, FINMA applied the travel ruleThe rule that sender and recipient details must travel with a transfer – including crypto transfers. to crypto, with no exemption for private wallets. A Swiss provider may only send coins to external wallets owned by its own identified customers. In practice, the first time you withdraw to your hardware wallet you will need to prove the address is yours: a signed message, a test amount or a confirmation in your account. Sending straight to a friend’s wallet may not work at all. The background is in FINMA and crypto regulation.

Inheritance and an emergency plan

Without a plan, self-custodied coins are often lost when the owner dies. A will is the wrong hiding place: under Article 558 of the Swiss Civil Code, everyone with an interest in the estate receives a copy of the opened will. Say only that crypto exists and where the instructions are kept.

Those instructions should explain in plain words which wallet you use, where the device and words are, and how to sell. Heirs can usually open a bank safe deposit box only with a certificate of inheritance – which is a feature, not a flaw. And do not forget tax: self-custodied coins also go into the securities list at 31 December (Swiss crypto tax guide).

Which setup suits whom

• Beginners with a few hundred francs: a self-custody app such as Relai or Bridge Wallet – or, deliberately, a bank if you would rather not manage any words.
• Savers with four-figure sums and up: a hardware wallet from an official shop, with the seed on steel in two places.
• Bitcoin only: a Bitcoin-only edition from BitBox or Trezor; fewer features, smaller attack surface.
• Many coins and DeFi: a Multi edition plus a software wallet, confirming every transaction on the device.

Whatever you choose, do a trial run before moving serious money, and write down what your family will need to know.