Can I Open a Private Bank Account in My Company's Name Using Crypto Proceeds?
A Swiss private bank can open an account in a company's name and receive the proceeds of a crypto sale, provided the file works at two levels at once: the company itself, and the people who own and control it.
alt.co Team
September 1, 2026
Yes. A Swiss or Monégasque private bank can open an account in a company's name and receive the proceeds of a crypto sale, provided the file works at two levels at once: the company itself, and the people who own and control it. Account openings start from USD 1,000,000 upwards, which can be seeded in tranches from USD 25,000.
What decides the outcome is rarely the amount. It is whether the bank can reconstruct where the crypto came from before it became company money, and whether the structure exists for a business reason rather than for the transaction. A regulated Swiss intermediary such as Altcoinomy prepares that two-level file and presents it to a partner private bank, carrying the compliance responsibility rather than leaving it with the bank.
| Company structure holding crypto proceeds | What the private bank examines | What slows or blocks the corporate account |
|---|---|---|
| Operating company that sold its own treasury crypto | Board resolution, accounts showing the position, sale records | Treasury never recorded in the accounts |
| Company that raised funds through a token sale | Token documentation, investor KYC, legal opinion on the token | Anonymous contributors, no investor identification |
| Holding company funded by a shareholder's personal crypto | The shareholder's own source of wealth, contribution agreement | Personal history that cannot be evidenced |
| Non-resident holding or special purpose vehicle | Substance, purpose, jurisdiction of incorporation | Entity created for this transaction only |
Yes, With a Two-Level File: The Company and the People Behind It
A private bank never onboards a company alone. Under Swiss AMLA, a financial intermediary must identify the contracting party, the company, and separately establish its beneficial owners, the natural persons who ultimately own or control it. A corporate account therefore requires know your business (KYB) checks on the entity and know your customer (KYC) checks on the individuals behind it, both satisfied before the account exists.
What the bank identifies on the corporate side
- Legal existence: certificate of incorporation, current extract from the commercial register
- Purpose and activity: what the company actually does, and whether the crypto position fits that activity
- Governance: directors, signatory powers, and the board resolution authorising the account and the deposit
- Financial substance: annual accounts or a balance sheet showing where the crypto sat before it was sold
What the bank identifies on the human side
- Every beneficial owner holding 25% or more of the capital or voting rights, or otherwise exercising control
- The persons authorised to sign on the account, with proof of identity and proof of address
- The source of wealth of each beneficial owner, since a company cannot have wealth its owners cannot explain
- Politically exposed person status, which triggers enhanced due diligence on the whole file
The second level is the one companies underestimate: a perfectly documented entity with a beneficial owner who cannot evidence their own fortune produces a file the bank will not accept.
Which Company Structures Private Banks Accept
Banks accept structures that have a reason to exist beyond the transaction in front of them. Substance, purpose and jurisdiction are assessed before the crypto is even discussed.
Structures that onboard routinely
- An operating company with staff, clients and accounts, which held crypto as part of its treasury
- A family or personal holding company with a documented purpose, such as consolidating a founder's investments
- A company incorporated in a jurisdiction the bank classifies as low or standard risk, with a transparent register of shareholders
Structures that slow or stop the file
- A non-resident holding company with no substance: no office, no staff, no activity, no financial statements
- A special purpose vehicle incorporated in the weeks before the sale, whose only asset is the crypto position
- Nominee directors or shareholders that obscure who actually controls the entity
- Incorporation in a jurisdiction on the FATF grey or black list, or a chain of holdings where the beneficial owner sits several layers away
None of these is an automatic refusal. They mean the bank will ask why the structure exists and expect a documented answer that makes sense to a compliance officer. The FATF standard on the transparency of legal persons, Recommendation 24, is the reason every bank in Switzerland and Monaco works this way.
The Corporate Document Pack
The corporate file is assembled before any crypto documentation is examined, because a bank will not run chain analysis for an entity it has not yet accepted in principle. The pack below is the standard request for a non-resident company.
- Certificate of incorporation and a commercial register extract dated within the last three months
- Articles of association, with any amendments
- Register of shareholders showing the full chain of ownership up to the natural persons
- Beneficial ownership declaration, signed by an authorised director
- Board resolution authorising the account and naming the signatories, with their identity documents
- Latest annual accounts, or an opening balance sheet for a recently formed holding company
- A description of the activity, the clients and the countries the company operates in
Documents issued abroad are accepted as certified true copies, often with an apostille, and preparing them once in a single pack avoids a second round of requests that typically adds two to three weeks. The FINMA dossier on money laundering prevention describes the identification and beneficial owner obligations every Swiss intermediary applies to a corporate client.
Where the Crypto Proceeds Came From: Three Cases
The origin of the proceeds determines which documents evidence the file, and the three common cases are documented differently. In each, the bank separates the source of funds, the specific transaction producing the money that arrives, from the source of wealth, how the position was built over time. Confusing the two is the most frequent reason a corporate file goes back for questions; the difference between source of wealth and source of funds is worth settling before the pack is assembled.
Case 1: the company sold its own treasury crypto
- Source of funds: the sale records, the execution confirmation and the settlement wire
- Source of wealth: the accounts showing when the crypto entered the balance sheet and with which money it was bought
- Supporting evidence: company-controlled wallet addresses, proof of control by signed message, exchange statements in the company's name
Case 2: the company raised funds in crypto
- Source of funds: the token sale, ICO or IDO records, with the amounts received and the sending addresses
- Source of wealth: the project itself, its whitepaper, the legal opinion on the token classification and the investor identification
- The blocking point: contributions from anonymous addresses never subjected to KYC, which the bank treats as unexplained inflows
Fundraising proceeds are the case where the bank looks hardest at the company's counterparties rather than at the company itself, and the mechanics of selling early ICO and IDO token allocations apply to the treasury that resulted from it.
Case 3: a shareholder contributed personal crypto
- Source of funds: the contribution agreement or capital increase, and the on-chain transfer from the shareholder's wallet to the company's wallet
- Source of wealth: the shareholder's personal history, from first acquisition to the contribution date
- The consequence: the beneficial owner's personal file becomes the centre of the review, exactly as it would for an individual account
A holding company does not cure a weak personal history: the reconstruction work is the same as for a personal account, and the company wrapper adds documents rather than removing any.
Corporate Account Versus Personal Account: What Changes
A corporate account is opened on the same legal basis as a personal one, with more documents, a longer review and closer monitoring afterwards. The Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act applies identically to both; only the volume of evidence differs.
The practical differences
- Threshold: account openings from USD 1,000,000 upwards in both cases, which can be seeded in tranches from USD 25,000
- Documents: eight to twelve corporate documents on top of the identity and wealth documents of each beneficial owner
- Review: the compliance intake runs 5 to 15 business days once the file is complete, and a corporate file is complete later because more parties have to sign
- Monitoring: the bank expects the activity to match the declared purpose, and an incoming wire that was not announced can be held for 30 to 90 days while it is explained
- Changes: any new director, shareholder or beneficial owner has to be declared and identified after opening
How a Regulated Intermediary Structures the Corporate File
A supervised intermediary builds the file in the order the bank reads it: entity first, beneficial owners second, crypto origin third, then the conversion and the transfer. The bank receives a documented corporate client from a regulated counterparty instead of an application to investigate from nothing.
The order of operations
- Structure review: purpose, substance and jurisdiction of the company, and whether the bank will accept the structure at all
- Identification of the entity and of every beneficial owner and signatory, with certified documents
- Screening of the company's wallet addresses with blockchain analytics tools such as Chainalysis, Elliptic or TRM Labs
- Reconstruction of the origin of the crypto according to the relevant case, with the gaps documented rather than hidden
- Conversion of the position through a crypto-to-fiat OTC execution in the company's name, with settlement in CHF, EUR, USD, GBP, AED or ILS on T+1 to T+3, and originator details transmitted with the wire under the Travel Rule from CHF/USD 1 000
- Presentation of the complete file to a partner private bank whose risk appetite matches the corporate profile
As a Swiss financial intermediary supervised by the VQF under AMLA, Altcoinomy SA (CHE-209.239.695, audited by BDO SA, Geneva since 2017) carries the compliance responsibility for that file rather than leaving it with the bank, which reduces the bank's own risk and increases acceptance. We are neither a bank, since we take no deposits, nor a standard OTC desk: those stop at fiat conversion, and we pick up where they leave off, through to the introduction at one of our partner private banks. Companies that convert crypto on a recurring basis can look at our institutional crypto OTC service for companies.
Outcomes are decided by each bank case by case, and a structure one institution declines may be accepted by another. Altcoinomy does not provide tax advice; the tax treatment of a corporate crypto sale depends on the company's jurisdiction and should be confirmed with its own advisers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I open a business bank account with crypto proceeds?
Yes, at a Swiss private bank, from USD 1,000,000 upwards. The bank identifies the company and its beneficial owners, then examines where the crypto came from before it was sold. Proceeds that can be traced to a documented acquisition and an identified seller are accepted; unexplained inflows are not.
Which bank is most crypto-friendly for companies?
There is no universal answer, because acceptance depends on the bank's risk appetite for the company's structure, jurisdiction and crypto history rather than on a general policy. The useful question is which bank matches this particular file, which is what an introduction by a regulated intermediary is designed to establish.
What is the difference between a corporate and a personal crypto account at a private bank?
The legal basis and the threshold are the same. A corporate account adds the identification of the entity, its directors, signatories and beneficial owners, eight to twelve corporate documents, and ongoing monitoring that the activity matches the declared purpose. The review therefore completes later, because more parties have to sign.
Can a non-resident holding company open a private bank account in Switzerland with crypto proceeds?
Yes, case by case. A holding company without substance, or with beneficial owners whose wealth cannot be evidenced, is the profile most often declined.
Want to know whether your company's file will be accepted before you approach a bank?
A Confidential Compliance Review looks at the structure, the beneficial owners and the origin of the crypto proceeds first. We tell you whether the position is bankable in the company's name, then build the two-level compliance file as a VQF-supervised Swiss intermediary and introduce it to one of our partner private banks in Switzerland or Monaco.
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alt.co is a Geneva-based, Swiss-regulated financial intermediary (Altcoinomy SA) supervised by VQF and audited by BDO SA. We help crypto holders access private banking in Switzerland and Monaco.
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