Pocket is not a trading platform; it is more like a conveyor belt. You set up a standing order in your e-banking, Pocket converts each incoming payment into bitcoin and sends the coins to your own wallet that same evening. There is no account balance to watch and no price chart to lose sleep over. If you want to put CHF 50 or CHF 200 a month into bitcoin while holding the keys yourself, Pocket App AG from Lupfig in the canton of Aargau offers one of the simplest ways to do it. Its edge over the competition: there is no minimum amount.
Pocket is not for you if you want coins other than bitcoin, want to pay by card or TWINT, or are planning one large purchase, because the 1.5% fee is high by comparison. And if managing your own wallet sounds daunting, a banking app is the better fit. This review is based on Pocket’s FAQ, legal disclosures and blog, not on test purchases.
Who runs Pocket and how safe the model is
The operator is Pocket App AG, Industriestrasse 33, 5242 Lupfig, registered in the Aargau commercial register. It is a member of the VQF self-regulatory organisation, which supervises financial intermediaries for anti-money-laundering compliance. Pocket holds no FINMA banking or fintech licence, and its model does not need one; our guide to FINMA crypto regulation explains why. Pocket says it has more than 50,000 customers in Switzerland and Europe.
The model matters more than the supervisor. Pocket is non-custodial: the company holds no private keys, and the bitcoin is yours from the moment it is paid out. If Pocket went bust, coins already paid out would not be affected. The risk shifts to you instead. Lose your wallet’s recovery phrase and the money is gone, with nobody to call. How to set up and back up a wallet properly is covered in our guide to crypto wallets in Switzerland.
To stop anyone buying to an address that is not theirs, Pocket asks for a digital signature when you buy to an external wallet: you sign a message with your wallet and thereby prove that you control the address. Bitcoin Core, Electrum, Sparrow and BlueWallet, among others, can do this. If you share your wallet’s extended public key, Pocket pays out to a fresh address each time, which helps your privacy.
Money in: standing orders, francs, no card
You pay only by bank transfer, in francs or euros. On the website or in the app you create a one-off or recurring order and receive payment details with a reference. You copy these into a standing order at your bank, weekly, monthly or even daily if you set up several standing orders. Without the reference in the payment message, the purchase is delayed.
A detail for the impatient: Pocket only accepts instant payments as SEPA Instant in euros, through its UK bank connection. Instant payments do not work through its Swiss bank. If you hold a euro account, that is the quickest route; a franc transfer takes from a few minutes to several working days depending on your bank, and Pocket suggests paying in the morning. There is no card, Apple Pay or TWINT. Which providers do take cards, and at what cost, is covered on our page on buying crypto with a credit card.
As soon as your payment arrives, Pocket buys bitcoin automatically. The day’s payouts are bundled into one batch transaction at around 10 pm, so hundreds of customers share the network fee. Selling works through a widget on the website; Pocket readily buys back bitcoin purchased through it and asks for proof of purchase beyond that. The FAQ does not state a selling fee. Other ways back into francs are covered in our guide to cashing out crypto in Switzerland.
Worked example: CHF 1,000 of bitcoin
According to Pocket’s fee page, a CHF 1,000 purchase looks like this:
- Transfer from your bank to Pocket: usually CHF 0
- 1.5% service fee: CHF 15
- Bitcoin bought for CHF 985, at the Kraken price at the moment of execution
- Shared network fee on payout: about 500 to 1,000 satoshis, around 10 to 25 centimes according to Pocket
- Total: roughly CHF 15.10 to CHF 15.25
There is no card route on Pocket. The more interesting maths is at the small end: on a weekly CHF 20 plan, the service fee is 30 centimes and the network adds 10 to 25 centimes, so 2% to almost 3% in total. Pocket also points out that many small purchases create many small Unspent transaction outputs: each payment you receive stays a separate chunk of bitcoin. Many small chunks make spending them later more expensive., which you should consolidate now and then when the network is quiet. If you buy several times on the same day to the same address, you may pay the network fee only once.
Fees compared: Relai and DFX.swiss
All three Swiss services send coins straight to your wallet, but they differ on price and minimum. Relai charges 1.0% plus a small The gap between the buying and selling price. It is not on any fee schedule, but you pay it on every purchase., with a minimum of CHF 50 per purchase. Pocket, by contrast, stresses that it adds no markup to the Kraken price: the 1.5% is all-in.
| Relai | DFX.swiss | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Base and SRO | Lupfig AG, VQF | Zurich, VQF | Zug, VQF |
| Fee, bank transfer purchase | 1.5%, no fixed minimum | 1.0% plus spread | 1.49% (website: from 1%) |
| Minimum amount | none | CHF 50 | not published |
| Card | +3% | ||
| Coins | bitcoin only | bitcoin only | 80+ |
| Verification | everyone since Dec 2025 | everyone since Oct 2024 | from CHF 1,000 |
For a one-off CHF 1,000 purchase, Relai is cheaper at about CHF 10 plus spread, while DFX at CHF 14.90 is roughly level with Pocket. For standing orders under CHF 50, Relai is out, and DFX publishes no minimum. If you buy large amounts often, an exchange such as Kraken costs less, but you then have to withdraw the coins yourself; see our Kraken review. The head-to-head with the Zurich competitor is in our Relai review.
Lightning, wallets and what Pocket does not do
Pocket is strictly bitcoin-only: no ether, no stablecoins, no staking, no card. It has, however, offered a A payment network built on Bitcoin for small amounts: payments arrive in seconds and usually cost a few centimes. top-up service since September 2023. At launch it paid out satoshis to the self-custodial Phoenix and Breez wallets, and another Pocket tutorial covers payouts to an Alby wallet. That is handy for topping up a spending wallet, for instance before a trip to Lugano, where hundreds of shops accept bitcoin under the city’s Plan ₿. Check on the website which Lightning wallets are supported today before you set it up.
For larger sums a hardware wallet makes sense; Pocket’s homepage uses the BitBox02 from Swiss maker Shift Crypto as its example. More in our BitBox review. The Pocket app is available in the Swiss App Store and on Google Play, and as a direct APK download.
Verification: a video call instead of KYC-light
Pocket was long known for allowing small amounts with minimal identification. That is over: since December 2025 every customer has to complete a one-time full Know Your Customer: the legally required identification through which financial firms check who their customers are. check. Pocket attributes this to the threshold for simplified identification being lowered to CHF 999 a month and to the international CARF and MiCA frameworks. Once verified, you can buy more than CHF 1,000 a month.
Pocket runs verification in-house, with no third-party KYC provider. You book a slot, someone from the Pocket team calls you on video, the conversation takes 5 to 10 minutes and the audio is recorded. You need a device with a camera, a valid ID and information about yourself and your finances. Pocket’s FAQ simply asks for “a valid identity document”; whether expats must also show a Swiss residence permit is not stated.
Taxes: declaring it yourself, with an export
Because the bitcoin sits in your own wallet, no bank sends you a tax statement. Pocket offers a transaction overview that you can export for tax purposes, which works as proof of purchase. You declare your holdings as at 31 December in the securities schedule of your tax return, valued at the year-end rate in the Federal Tax Administration’s price list. Capital gains remain tax-free for private investors, and a regular savings plan does not turn you into a professional trader. The details are in our guide to declaring crypto on your tax return.
Pros and cons
What works
- No minimum amount and no fixed minimum fee: even CHF 10 a week works
- Bitcoin is sent to your own wallet automatically; Pocket holds no keys
- Executed at the Kraken price with no extra spread, verifiable according to Pocket
- A standing order at your own bank works as a savings plan
- Aargau company, member of the VQF SRO, verification done in-house
Watch out for
- Bitcoin only: no altcoins, no stablecoins
- 1.5% fee, higher than Relai’s 1.0%
- No card and no TWINT, bank transfer only
- Instant payments only in euros via the UK bank connection
- Video verification compulsory for everyone since December 2025
Setting up a bitcoin savings plan with Pocket
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Get a wallet ready
Pick a bitcoin wallet that can sign messages, such as BitBox02, Sparrow, Electrum or BlueWallet, or install the Pocket app. Write down the recovery phrase offline.
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Create an order
On pocketbitcoin.com or in the app, create a one-off or recurring order, choose francs or euros and confirm your receiving address with a signature.
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Book your verification
Pick a slot for the video call, have your ID ready and answer questions about yourself and your finances. A six-digit code sent by email completes the process.
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Set up the standing order
Enter Pocket’s IBAN and reference as a standing order in your e-banking, with whatever amount and frequency you like.
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Receive your bitcoin
Pocket buys when your payment arrives and pays out at around 10 pm. You get an email; network confirmation usually follows overnight.
According to the FAQ, Pocket asks for nothing more than a valid ID, a device with a camera and information about your financial situation. For very large or unusual payments, questions about the source of funds may follow, as with any financial intermediary.
Want to buy coins other than bitcoin, or pay by card?
Operating since 2013Group registered with FinCEN (US) and the FCA (UK)
Alternatives to Pocket
Relai in Zurich is the closest alternative: also bitcoin-only and non-custodial, cheaper at 1.0%, but with a CHF 50 minimum. DFX.swiss in Zug sends more than 80 coins straight to your wallet, without card payments. If you would rather leave your bitcoin with a Swiss bank, read our Yuh review. And for every way of buying, from the post office counter to the vending machine, see our guide to buying bitcoin in Switzerland.
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.
Mt Pelerin
Mt Pelerin and Bridge Wallet for Swiss residents: CHF via SIC, first CHF 500 a year commission-free, cash via QR-bill at Swiss Post and SBB. Costs and catches.
BitBox02
BitBox02 Nova from Adliswil: Bitcoin-only or Multi, Bluetooth, microSD backup, open source – what the Swiss hardware wallet does well and where it stops.
Crypto wallets
BitBox from Adliswil, Trezor from CHF 49, Ledger, Tangem from Zug: which crypto wallet suits whom, how to store your seed phrase, and the Swiss travel rule.
