Mt Pelerin is arguably the most Swiss way into crypto: francs sent via SIC, a QR-bill paid in cash at the post office counter and a wallet whose keys live on your phone. The Geneva company does not run an exchange with an order book. It runs a conversion service that turns francs into coins delivered straight to your own Bridge Wallet, or turns coins back into francs on your Swiss bank account. The hook for beginners: the first CHF 500 you buy by bank transfer each calendar year carries no commission.
It is a weaker fit if you want Solana, XRP, Dogecoin or Pi, because none of them is listed. Card buyers pay 2.5% to 3.8%, far more than by bank transfer. And if you would rather a provider held your coins than manage your own wallet, a banking app suits you better. This review is based on Mt Pelerin’s price list, developer documentation and FAQ, not on test purchases.
Who is behind Mt Pelerin
Mt Pelerin Group SA was founded in Geneva, has offices in Geneva and Neuchâtel and is registered under CHE-188.552.084. Since 2019 it has been affiliated as a financial intermediary with the SO-FIT self-regulatory organisation, which checks compliance with anti-money-laundering law. That is neither a banking licence nor direct FINMA supervision; our guide to FINMA crypto regulation explains the difference. Mt Pelerin has no MiCA authorisation and serves residents of the EU or the UK only where they approach it on their own initiative. If you work in Geneva or Basel but live across the border, that rules it out; if you are an expat living in Switzerland, it does not.
The core product is Bridge Wallet, a mobile app with a web version. It is a multi-chain You hold the private keys yourself. No provider can freeze, lose or hand over your coins, but nobody can recover them for you either. wallet: Mt Pelerin has no access to your coins, and if the company failed your holdings would not be affected. The flip side: lose your recovery phrase and you lose the money. How to secure a wallet properly is covered in our guide to crypto wallets in Switzerland.
Money in and out: SIC, cards and cash
The cheapest route is a bank transfer in francs via Swiss Interbank Clearing: the Swiss National Bank’s payment system, through which every domestic franc transfer runs., Switzerland’s normal domestic payment system. Euros go via SEPA and other currencies via SWIFT; the price list names 18 in all, which helps if you still hold a pound or dollar account from home. A single bank-transfer purchase can be as large as CHF 100,000. Bridge Wallet also lets you open up to two “crypto IBANs”; according to Mt Pelerin, transfers received there are converted automatically into the coin you choose. Add a standing order and you have a savings plan.
Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay work too, but always require verification, are capped at CHF 5,000 per transaction and exclude company cards. TWINT and PostFinance Pay are not on the price list; the possible workarounds are covered in our guide to buying crypto with TWINT.
The real differentiator is cash. Mt Pelerin creates a Swiss QR-bill that you pay like any other bill, at a post office counter or, where available, a Swiss Post payment machine. Mt Pelerin says the payment is processed within 24 business hours. Alternatively, use an SBB ticket machine: in the prepaid and money transfers menu, choose the option to pay a bill, explicitly not “Bitcoin Paper Wallet”, hold the QR-bill under the reader and pay with franc or euro notes. SBB charges 1.25% of the amount, at least CHF 2.50 and at most CHF 5.00, with a maximum of CHF 600 per QR-bill. How this differs from the machine’s own paper-wallet offer is explained on our SBB ticket machine page; every cash route is collected under buying bitcoin with cash.
Selling works the other way round: send coins from Bridge Wallet to Mt Pelerin and francs arrive in your bank account. The minimum is 50 and the maximum 100,000 per sale, on the same commission tiers as buying. More ways back to francs are covered in our guide to cashing out crypto in Switzerland.
Worked example: CHF 1,000 of bitcoin
First, a detail many people miss: CHF 1,000 is one franc above the no-verification limit, so for this amount you have to identify yourself. The arithmetic follows our reading of the price list, in which the tiers apply to annual volume; the app shows the exact figure before you confirm.
- First purchase of the calendar year by SIC transfer: CHF 500 commission-free, CHF 500 at 1.3% = CHF 6.50
- The same purchase once the free CHF 500 is used up: 1.3% = CHF 13
- By card: CHF 500 at 2.5% = CHF 12.50 plus CHF 500 at 3.8% = CHF 19, total CHF 31.50
- In cash at an SBB machine: two QR-bills, at most CHF 5 SBB fee each, plus commission as for a bank transfer
According to the price list, delivery to your wallet is free on most networks; only certain tokens on Ethereum cost USD 1. If you later send coins elsewhere, you pay the network fee.
Fees compared with other Swiss wallet services
Mt Pelerin competes less with exchanges than with other Swiss services that deliver straight to your own wallet. The result: for small amounts and cash, Mt Pelerin leads; for coin choice, DFX.swiss does.
| Mt Pelerin | DFX.swiss | Relai | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base and SRO | Geneva, SO-FIT | Zug, VQF | Zurich, VQF | Lupfig AG, VQF |
| Bank transfer purchase | CHF 500/year free, then 1.3–0.6% | 1.49% | 1.0% plus spread | 1.5% |
| Card | 2.5–3.8% | +3% | ||
| Cash | QR-bill, Swiss Post and SBB | |||
| Coins | about 30 | 80+ | bitcoin only | bitcoin only |
| Without verification | up to CHF 999 / 30 days | below CHF 1,000 |
For a one-off CHF 1,000 purchase, Mt Pelerin is the cheapest of the four in your first year at CHF 6.50, and just behind Relai after that at CHF 13 (Relai: about CHF 10 plus spread). From CHF 5,000 of annual volume the rate drops to 1.1%, from CHF 50,000 to 0.9%. Pure bitcoin savers should compare our Pocket Bitcoin review and Relai review.
Coins: what is there and what is missing
Mt Pelerin lists about 30 tokens on 16 blockchains: bitcoin, also as satoshis via Lightning, ether, the stablecoins USDT, USDC and EURC, wrapped bitcoin such as WBTC and cbBTC, the gold tokens PAXG and XAUt, plus BNB, AVAX, POL, Tezos and CELO. According to the official list, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Cardano, Chainlink, Shiba Inu and Pi are not offered.
A distinctly Swiss item is ZCHF, the Frankencoin. It is a decentralised A token whose value is pegged to a currency, here the Swiss franc. How stable it is depends on what backs it. which, according to Frankencoin, tracks the value of the Swiss franc and is backed by crypto collateral rather than bank deposits. So it is not a franc in a bank account and is not covered by deposit protection. If you want to hold francs on a blockchain, for instance to move between coins without going back to your bank, Mt Pelerin gives you direct access. Swaps are free up to CHF 500 a year, then cost 0.3%.
Staking, a crypto card or interest products: according to our research, Mt Pelerin offers none of them.
Verification and limits
Without identification, Mt Pelerin allows up to CHF 999 over a rolling 30 days, counting all purchases, sales and swaps. The Swiss Post FAQ adds CHF 11,988 per year. This implements the threshold in FINMA’s anti-money-laundering ordinance, which requires identification for crypto exchange transactions from CHF 1,000.
Full Know Your Customer: the legally required identification through which financial firms check who their customers are. requires an ID document, proof of address and a selfie. After that, transactions of up to CHF 100,000 are possible; depending on your profile, Mt Pelerin may email you questions about the source of funds.
Taxes
Because the coins sit in your own wallet, Mt Pelerin does not issue a bank-style tax statement, and we found no electronic tax statement. You declare your holdings as at 31 December yourself, in the securities schedule of your tax return. Valuation follows the Federal Tax Administration’s price list; if a coin is not on it, use the price on a leading platform and, failing that, the purchase price in francs. Capital gains are tax-free for private investors, but wealth tax applies. Keep purchase records and transaction IDs; the process is explained in our guide to declaring crypto on your tax return.
Pros and cons
What works
- First CHF 500 per calendar year commission-free by bank transfer
- Francs in via SIC and payouts back to a Swiss bank account
- Cash purchases with a QR-bill at Swiss Post counters or SBB machines
- Self-custodial Bridge Wallet; Mt Pelerin holds no keys
- Swiss franc stablecoin ZCHF, plus USDT and USDC on several chains
Watch out for
- No Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Cardano or Pi
- Card purchases cost 2.5% to 3.8% and always need KYC
- Without verification, CHF 999 per 30 days at most
- Not available to residents of the EU or UK, cross-border commuters included
- No staking and no electronic tax statement found
Buying bitcoin with cash at a Swiss post office
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Set up Bridge Wallet
Install the app, create a new wallet and write down the recovery phrase offline.
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Register
Choose the “Signature” authentication mode and enter an email address. Up to CHF 999 per 30 days, no ID is needed.
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Create the QR-bill
Pick bitcoin, open the buy function, choose the Bank tab, CHF and then Swiss QR bill. The app creates a PDF.
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Print and pay in cash
Print the bill and pay it at a post office counter or payment machine. At an SBB machine the limit is CHF 600 per bill.
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Receive your coins
Mt Pelerin confirms receipt by email and sends the bitcoin to your Bridge Wallet, within 24 business hours by its own account.
For verification from CHF 1,000, have your ID or passport ready plus a recent proof of address, such as a utility bill or bank statement. For the local scene, see our page on crypto in Geneva.
Looking for Solana, XRP or a wider choice of coins with card purchases?
Operating since 2013Group registered with FinCEN (US) and the FCA (UK)
Alternatives to Mt Pelerin
For Solana, XRP or Dogecoin you need an exchange such as Kraken, which accepts francs via SIC; see our Kraken review. For bitcoin-only saving into your own wallet, Relai and Pocket are the direct competitors. DFX.swiss in Zug offers more than 80 coins, but no cash and no card. And if you want to buy with cash at a machine, our guide to bitcoin ATMs in Switzerland lists locations and costs.
Pocket Bitcoin
Pocket Bitcoin for Swiss residents: standing orders, 1.5% with no minimum, bitcoin sent straight to your own wallet. Real costs, video verification and catches.
Relai
Relai review: Zurich bitcoin app with a 1% fee, a CHF 50 minimum and a CHF 100,000 yearly cap. What the savings plan costs and how Pocket and DFX compare.
Kraken
Kraken review for Swiss residents: free CHF deposits via SIC from CHF 1, Pro fees from 0.40%, Pi against euros, 30% staking commission – and a BVI contract.
Cash & kiosk
Buying bitcoin with cash in Switzerland: post office, SBB machines, crypto ATMs, kiosk vouchers and exchange offices compared, with costs and the no-ID limit.
