Cuba’s Central Bank [BCC] is all set to issue licenses for virtual asset service providers, according to the latest announcement on the 26th of April. The permit would be available to individuals both Cuban and foreign, read the translated resolution in Cuba’s official gazette.
The approved licenses will be valid for one year and might be extended for a second year, “given the experimental and novel nature of this type of activity,” the BCC said. Without disclosing further details, the BCC resolution stated that only approved crypto providers will be allowed to operate in the nation.
However, it did make it clear that virtual assets “do not include digital representations of fiat currency, securities and other financial assets widely used in traditional banking and financial systems, which are regulated in other provisions of the Central Bank of Cuba.”
Last year, the BCC introduced a resolution that established a clear set of frameworks with regard to the usage of virtual assets in commercial transactions and licensing of service providers in that sector.
Referencing the previous mandate, BCC recalled that it allowed the bank to grant licenses to “service providers of virtual assets for transactions related to financial, exchange and collection or payment activities, in and from the national territory.”
In comparison to that, the current version remains mum on the crypto tax intricacies.
Cuba’s BCC aims to deal with crypto license requests within 3 months
The latest resolution bestows greater autonomy to the nation‘s top bank giving it the authority to accept or deny the requested license “in a term that in its totality does not exceed ninety working days from the date of receipt of the required documentation”.
Additionally, without BCC’s prior authorization, providers will not be able to shut down operations and will have to keep accounting records of their operations. Any violators would be dealt with under Decree 363.
In a positive development, Brazil’s Senate approved a bill on cryptocurrencies during a plenary session, paving the way for official regulation of crypto in the world’s ninth-largest economy.
The bill is still awaiting approval from the nation’s Chamber of Deputies and then signed off by President Jair Bolsonaro to become law in the Latin country. This is expected to occur by the end of 2022, according to experts.