Zürich · A one-day working session

Swiss Custody Day

One room, one day, one question taken seriously: can a Swiss business or fiduciary hold its own crypto keys — legally, prudently, and safe to hand on when the time comes? Built for family offices, trusts, fiduciaries and corporate treasury.

Zürich 09:00 – 18:00 English 40–60 seats

The premise

The day is a single argument, made in order.

Most custody events sell a product. This one follows a line of reasoning — from why you'd want keys at all, to whether you're allowed to hold them, to how it's actually run, to what happens the day something breaks. Each session earns the next.

01

Why

The balance-sheet case for holding your own keys — counterparty risk in plain terms, and the honest costs alongside it.

02

Whether

What Swiss law and a fiduciary's duty of care actually permit — and what they demand in return.

03

How

The governance and the key ceremony that turn a decision into an operating model you can defend.

04

What breaks

Succession, incapacity, and the day a signer is gone — the questions nobody wants to be the first to answer.

5Deep sessions
6Lightning talks
47:53Stage / people
40–60Peers, curated

The programme

09:00 to 18:00, then the apéro.

Just under half the day is on stage. The rest is deliberately yours — long breaks, a facilitated lunch, and roundtables where the real exchange happens.

Provisional · speakers & date to be confirmed

09:0030 min
Doors

Welcome coffee, registration, stands open

09:3015 min
Opening

The case in ten minutes

Why the whole room is here, and how the argument of the day is built.

09:4530 min
Session · Why

Keys on your balance sheet

Counterparty risk for a business that isn't crypto-native — what it concretely looks like, and the real cost of holding keys weighed against the risk of not.

10:1530 min
Session · Whether

The DLT Act, when your custodian fails

Swiss law's segregation regime for crypto-based assets in insolvency — the conditions that must actually hold, and the gaps it doesn't cover.

10:4530 min
Break

Coffee & stands

11:1530 min
Session · Whether

The prudent trustee: can a fiduciary hold keys?

What duty of care requires here, the process and documentation that satisfy it, and where personal liability actually sits.

11:4530 min
Panel

Ask the lawyers and your auditor

Segregation, fiduciary duty and audit evidence are one problem from three angles. Bring the questions your own counsel hasn't answered.

12:1590 min
Lunch

Seated lunch, by segment

13:4545 min
Lightning

Lightning talks

A fast-paced round of short talks from the floor — six minutes each, back to back. Your six minutes of fame to put a project, a tool, an idea or a question in front of the whole room.

14:3030 min
Session · How

Governance and the key ceremony

A working operating model: quorum, separation of duties, who holds what, staff turnover, and what the board resolution actually says.

15:0030 min
Break

Coffee & stands

15:3030 min
Session · What breaks

Succession, incapacity, continuity

Real mechanisms for when a keyholder can no longer sign — and how they meet Swiss inheritance law and trust structures instead of fighting them.

16:0045 min
Roundtables

By segment, under the Chatham House Rule

Tables of six — family office, trust & fiduciary, corporate treasury, small intermediary — one facilitator, one question each. The part of the day you actually came for.

16:4515 min
Close

One sentence per table

What each table is still stuck on — the shortlist that sets next year's programme.

17:0060 min +
Apéro

The conversation continues

The room stays open past six. The table you were at is the table you keep talking to, glass in hand.

Two formats worth the trip

Not everything is a talk.

Lightning · 13:45

Your six minutes of fame.

A fast-paced session of short talks given by the people in the room. Six minutes each, a strict clock, and any topic that fits — a project you've built, a tool worth knowing, a lesson learned, or an idea you need in front of a room of peers.

6 × 6 min · open to attendees · sign up at the event

Roundtables · 16:00

Your peers, your segment, no names attached.

Tables of six, split by who you are — family office, trust, treasury, intermediary — each with a facilitator and a single question. Held under the Chatham House Rule: you're free to use what you hear, but never to say who said it — so people speak plainly about what actually worked.

45 min · 6–8 tables · one facilitator each

Who we'd love in the room

The whole self-custody stack, under one roof.

The kinds of tools and people we're curating for the floor — what you'd actually hold your keys with, and the advisors who make holding them defensible. If your work fits one of these, come and talk to us.

Tools & infrastructure

Hardware walletsSigning devices, from established models to DIY builds.
BackupsSeed backup and encryption — BIP-39 and the approaches that go further.
Recovery & inheritanceTimelocked recovery and succession that survives the worst day.
Multisig coordinatorsThe software that runs quorum and separation of duties.
NodesRun your own, so you verify rather than trust.

Advisors & authorities

ConsultantsIndependent help designing and running a setup.
Legal & complianceCounsel for the questions the morning sessions raise.
Fiduciaries & trusteesThe professionals who hold keys for others.
NotariesFor backups, recovery and succession that must hold up.
SRO & FINMAThe self-regulatory bodies and the regulator.

Organised with

Official sponsor & co-organiser BitBox
Co-organisers
Hodling SA Fortego & other Swiss companies

Practical

  • WhereZürich — walkable from the Hauptbahnhof
  • When09:00–18:00, apéro to follow · date to be announced
  • EntryCHF 210 per person (incl. VAT) · a free +1 of your choice · refer a peer and you both get CHF 21 in BTC over Lightning
  • LanguageEnglish, with German at the tables where it falls naturally
  • WhoFamily offices, trusts & fiduciaries, corporate treasury, small intermediaries
  • Seats40–60, curated — this is a working room, not an expo

Seats are limited and curated

Be in the room.

CHF210

per person, incl. VAT · full day & apéro

  • +1 Bring a guest of your choice — free.
  • ₿ Refer a peer — you both get CHF 21 in bitcoin, over Lightning.