Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou recently signed Bill 20.345 related to digital assets, making Uruguay the fifth country in Central and South America to include Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) in the regulatory framework, following Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and El Salvador. country.

After four years of experimentation and law revision, Uruguay’s Digital Bill also mentions decentralized securities

This amendment aims to establish more clear regulatory regulations for Uruguay’s cryptocurrency industry. The country’s central bank launched a series of experiments related to digital assets as early as 2021, and based on this, gradually built a regulatory framework. In December 2022, the relevant bill passed Congress for review, and the president’s signature is the last step to officially put the bill into effect.

This bill amends Uruguay’s current anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) laws to include digital assets within the scope of regulation. In addition, the law also reformed Uruguay's securities law, introducing for the first time the concept of decentralized securities, which are electronic issuance, storage, transfer and trading through distributed ledger technology (DLT).

The actual supervision is handed over to the SSF, and the Uruguay Digital Assets Act is officially on the road

The Central Bank of Uruguay is the nominal regulatory agency responsible for issuing operating licenses for VASPs. However, the actual regulatory work, such as identifying various service providers as exchanges, wallet services or miners, will be performed by the country’s Financial Services Supervision Authority (Superintendencia de Servicios Financieros, SSF). The Bureau is responsible for classifying and monitoring the actual operations of different types of VASP businesses to ensure that their operations comply with legal requirements.

Additionally, the bill will help attract more international investors, as cryptocurrency businesses will be able to operate in a more legal and transparent manner with a clear regulatory framework. This not only provides a more stable development environment for the local market, but also strengthens the country's position in the international cryptocurrency market and promotes innovation and development in the country's financial technology field.

Uruguay's signing of this bill marks a major development in the country's digital asset field. With the formal implementation of the bill, Uruguay is expected to become one of the key countries in the development of cryptocurrency and financial technology in Central and South America, and its development context can also be used to announce the VASP registration recently. and Taiwan reference for the money laundering prevention draft.

(The Financial Supervisory Commission announces new regulations on "Virtual Asset Services Money Laundering Prevention Regulations": the anti-money laundering statement will be abolished and operators must apply for registration within three months)

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