Swiss crypto bank AMINA Bank and Deutsche Börse’s Crypto Finance Group have successfully completed a real-time fiat settlement pilot using Google Cloud’s Universal Ledger (GCUL), marking a major step toward modernizing Switzerland’s financial infrastructure.
The test, conducted with participation from several unnamed Swiss banks, demonstrated that traditional institutions can process instant, compliant fiat transactions around the clock using distributed ledger technology, without introducing new digital currencies or altering existing regulatory frameworks.
The goal of the pilot was not to reinvent financial rails but to upgrade them. By embedding DLT into familiar workflows, the system showed how banks could achieve faster, more transparent settlement while maintaining compatibility with current national standards. This approach avoids the legal and operational hurdles typically associated with tokenization or new payments legislation.
📢 We’re proud to announce the completion of a successful pilot between AMINA Bank and @CryptoFinanceAG, together with other banking partners, using @GoogleCloudWeb3 (GCUL). Functioning as an orchestration layer that sits on top of current financial structure, the PoC created… pic.twitter.com/3ogALsAbeV
— AMINA Bank (@AMINABankGlobal) November 26, 2025
How the Pilot Worked Behind the Scenes
Each participant played a specialized role. Crypto Finance Group served as the currency operator, managing the settlement logic and the rule-set that governs every transaction. Meanwhile, AMINA Bank integrated the GCUL system directly into its core banking environment, giving select clients the ability to make instant fiat payments. This level of integration demonstrated that DLT-based settlement can be embedded directly into standard bank infrastructure without disrupting existing processes.
At the core of the pilot was Google Cloud’s GCUL, a cloud-native ledger designed to support real-time movement of traditional assets using distributed architecture. By functioning as a multi-institution settlement layer, it enabled banks to exchange fiat instantly, securely, and with full auditability, a capability that is impossible under traditional settlement schedules that rely on batch processing and limited operating hours.
A Path Toward Large-Scale Adoption
The successful test paves the way for significant expansion. The next phase will transition from a controlled environment to live operations, gradually onboarding additional financial institutions across the Swiss ecosystem. As this happens, settlement functions will extend beyond interbank transfers to consumer-facing applications.
Potential use cases include real-time point-of-sale payments, on-demand international transfers, and next-generation corporate treasury solutions. By enabling 24/7 settlement in traditional fiat currencies, the infrastructure could eventually reduce transaction friction for both retail and institutional clients, while increasing liquidity across the banking sector.
As AMINA Bank, Crypto Finance Group, and Google Cloud move toward the next stage of development, the program positions Switzerland as a frontrunner in regulated, DLT-enabled financial innovation.