SDX

SDX
Founded	2019
Headquarters	Zurich, Switzerland
Key People	Belén Romana Garcia, David Newns, Marco Kessler
Employees	Approx. 80 (as of 2024)
Products	Digital securities trading, primary issuance, settlement, custody, crypto asset custody, staking solutions
Twitter	@SDX_global
LinkedIn	Profile
Website	SDX
Blog	Insights

SDX (SIX Digital Exchange) is a Swiss-regulated digital financial market infrastructure that provides issuance, trading, settlement, and custody services for digital assets, including digital securities and cryptocurrencies. SDX operates as part of SIX Group AG, which also oversees the main Swiss stock exchange and other market infrastructure services. SDX combines distributed ledger technology (DLT) with established regulatory frameworks to enable institutional-grade transactions in digital assets. In October 2025, SIX Group announced it was integrating SDX operations in-house to streamline digital asset capabilities across the group’s primary exchange, trading, and post-trade divisions.

SDX is recognized for creating one of the first fully regulated digital asset exchanges and central securities depositories (CSDs), supporting tokenized securities, settlement, and custody workflows within a unified, regulated infrastructure. The exchange works closely with Swiss and global regulatory bodies, financial institutions, and technology providers to advance the digitalization of capital markets through DLT.

History

SDX was founded in 2018 by SIX Group AG with the goal of pioneering DLT-based infrastructure for institutional digital asset markets. The initiative followed increasing interest from financial institutions in tokenization and blockchain technology after the 2017 cryptocurrency boom and as global demand rose for more efficient, transparent post-trade processes. After a multi-year development phase and close work with Swiss regulators (FINMA), SDX received regulatory approval to operate as both a stock exchange and CSD for digital assets in September 2021.

Key figures in SDX development include chairwoman Belén Romana Garcia, managing director David Newns, and digital securities product lead Marco Kessler. SDX’s creation coincided with a global trend of exchanges and banks exploring DLT-powered platforms amidst calls for transparency, programmability, and resiliency in financial infrastructures.

From 2021 to 2024, SDX facilitated the issuance and settlement of tokenized bonds and equity, supported pilot projects with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), and launched SDX Web3 AG to support crypto custody and staking for institutional clients. Partnerships with major international banks and firms, such as Citigroup and the World Bank, further extended SDX’s reach in digitalization projects and post-trade innovation.

By October 2025, reflecting both technological progress and broader digital asset adoption by mainstream institutions, SIX Group decided to dissolve SDX as a standalone unit, incorporating its trading, settlement, and custody infrastructure into the group’s core exchange and post-trade ecosystem.

Management changes

According to CoinDesk, an online cryptocurrency news service, many of the original project managers had left by early 2020. SDX's CEO Halblaub quit in the summer of 2019. He was followed approximately six months later by Alex Zinder, architecture lead, Ivo Sauter, head of clients and products, and Sven Roth, chief digital officer. Sauter told CoinDesk, “I think for me, the biggest thing was the initial vision changed. Primarily, this was because the mother company exerted increasing influence over SDX. I believe that with an innovation project like SDX there needs to be a bit of separation from the big mother.”

In March 2020, SIX announced that Tim Grant, the former CEO of DrumG Technologies, would head SDX.

Front-end development

Omniex was selected by SIX Group in February 2020 to provide the front end for SDX's cryptocurrency trading platform, which was planned to launch later that year. SIX Group invested an undisclosed amount in Omniex at the time of the selection.

Joint ventures

SDX announced on December 7, 2020 that it was investing in Custodigit. This digital asset custody company was already operational and would partner with Swisscom and Sygnum to provide a comprehensive suite of digital services, spanning trading, settlement, and custody. The joint offering, dubbed the "Institutional Digital Asset Gateway" was planned to launch in the first quarter of 2021. Custodigit was established by Sygnum and Swisscom in 2018. Sygnum is a digital asset bank regulated by the Swiss government.

On December 8, 2020, SDX and SBI Digital Asset Holdings announced they would "work towards" launching a joint venture for a Singapore-based digital issuance platform, exchange and central securities depository that would attract institutional business.

Products & Services

SDX provides a regulated environment for the issuance, trading, settlement, and custody of digital assets and tokenized securities. Core offerings include:

• A DLT-based stock exchange integrated with a CSD, supporting tokenized bonds, equities, and other financial instruments
• Atomic settlement for digital securities, which enables instantaneous payment and transfer, eliminating counterparty and settlement risks
• Institutional-grade crypto asset custody and staking through SDX Web3 AG, providing secure solutions for holding and managing cryptocurrencies alongside regulated securities
• Partnership facilitation for bank-issued digital bonds and experimental tokenization pilots, including wholesale central bank digital currency testing with the Swiss National Bank (Project Helvetia)

The SDX platform has also adopted the Digital Token Identifier (DTI) ISO 24165 standard to ensure precise identification and regulatory monitoring of digital assets traded on its infrastructure. This is aimed at enhancing transparency for market participants and regulators across jurisdictions.

Key People

Members of the Board of Directors

• Belén Romana Garcia (Chairwoman)
• Bjørn Sibbern (Global Head Exchanges, SIX)
• Chris Landis (Head IT, SIX)
• Marion Leslie (Head Financial Information, SIX)
• Andrew Peel (Head of Digital Asset Markets, Morgan Stanley – INED)
• Bertrand Perez (Member of the Board – INED)
• Thomas Raab (Member of the Board – INED)

Executive Management

1. David Newns (Managing Director)
2. Marco Kessler (Head of Digital Assets)
3. Key executives within product, operations, compliance, and technology at SDX and its parent SIX Group

Risk Management

SDX’s infrastructure was built to comply with Swiss and EU financial regulation, emphasizing strong risk management, settlement, compliance, and anti-money laundering standards for both digital and traditional financial instruments. The use of DLT allows for real-time tracking, immutable records, and enhanced transparency, while its regulated status under FINMA provides investor and counterparty protections.

Controversies

As a pioneer in regulated digital assets infrastructure, SDX has successfully navigated evolving regulatory frameworks and overcome the inherent challenges of adopting new technology in traditional markets. The integration of SDX into SIX Group’s core exchange and post-trade operations in 2025 was framed as a strategic move to achieve greater scale and strengthen the firm's digital market capabilities, rather than as a result of headline controversies. Industry observers have noted that mainstream uptake of DLT remains gradual, and the regulatory and technological landscape for digital assets continues to evolve. SDX has had to address concerns about interoperability, market structure, and custody for institutional and retail clients, but is not associated with major public regulatory disputes or failures.