Cuba’s Central Bank (BCC) will recognize cryptocurrencies as set out in Resolution 215/2021 published in the Official Gazette on Thursday. Minister-President Marta Sabina Wilson González signed the Resolution.
The bank will allow for the use of certain virtual assets in commercial transactions and define the rules for the use of cryptocurrency in Cuba.
In 2019, President Diaz-Canel announced that Cuba would study cryptocurrency as part of the discussions on economic reforms. The President, alongside other ministers, appeared in a live broadcast on the Mesa Redonda program to discuss the issue.
Cryptocurrencies are a form of digital currency using blockchain technology. It has no physical existence and is not backed by gold or any banking institutions. It is a form of payment that can be used online to pay for goods and services.
Resolution 215:
It establishes “the rules on the basis of which the Central Bank of Cuba regulates the use of certain virtual assets in commercial transactions, as well as the licensing of virtual asset service providers for operations related to financial, exchange and collection or payment activities, in and from the national territory.”
It allows the virtual asset to be defined as “the digital representation of value that can be digitally traded or transferred and used for payments or investments.”
Service providers are “any natural or legal person that as a business or in business activities engaged in the exchange between virtual assets and legal tender currencies; the exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets; the transfer of virtual assets; the custody or administration of virtual assets or instruments that allow control over virtual assets; and the participation and provision of financial services related to the offer of an issuer or sale of a virtual asset.”
The Central Bank of Cuba may allow “the use of certain virtual assets in commercial transactions, and grant license to virtual asset service providers for operations related to financial, exchange and collection or payment activities, in and from the national territory.”
The Resolution establishes that “Financial institutions and other legal entities may only use virtual assets among themselves and with natural persons, to carry out monetary-mercantile operations, and of exchange and exchange; as well as to satisfy pecuniary obligations when so authorized by the Central Bank of Cuba.”
“The bodies or agencies of the Central Administration of the State, political, mass and social organizations and other institutions, control and supervise that their subordinate entities and the associative forms of which they are related bodies, refrain from using virtual assets and the services thereof, in commercial, monetary-mercantile transactions or to satisfy pecuniary obligations, except in cases authorized by the Central Bank of Cuba.”
The BCC distances itself from any criminal activity associated with cryptocurrencies. “Natural persons assume the risks and responsibilities that in the civil and criminal order derive from operating with virtual assets and virtual asset service providers that operate outside the Banking and Financial System, even though transactions with virtual assets between such persons are not prohibited.”
The most popular cryptocurrencies presently in use on the island are Bitcoin, Ethereum Litecoin, and USDT.
Resolution 215 will enter into force in 20 days.
