Are Island Countries Leading The Regulation Game When It Comes To Crypto?

By Rishma Banerjee

The Bahamas, which has been dabbling in the fields of digital assets, is planning to launch strong regulations for token and cryptocurrency sales, in an effort to make the country a better place for digital currency and blockchain businesses. The Securities Commission officially filed a draft of the bill back in March seeking to regulate token offerings that are not considered securities.

However, Bahamas is not the first island country to show interest in cryptocurrencies or introduce such bills. Back in June last year, Malta through its Financial Services Authority ( MFSA), passed three laws that enables the issuance and trade of digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, etc., within its borders, and this has attracted big exchanges such as Binance to take its services there. Malta has been in the forefront when it comes to the acceptance, adoption and usage pf cryptocurrencies, with a large section of its people using it for daily needs.

Mention must be made of the efforts undertaken by Gibraltar to bring cryptocurrencies into the mainstream of the economy there. In Gibraltar, there is ongoing legislation seeking for enabling the digital assets to be issued and traded as well.

Also, Bermuda passed a law that allows the schemes doing or dealing with ICOs to ask for an endorsement from the Bahama’s ministry of finance. It’s more likely that particular cryptos characterising equity shares should be exempted from the nation’s securities law; nonetheless, the rules and regulations for this are still in the pipeline.

According to the bill that has been filed by Securities Commission of Bahamas, the different rules and regulations will be applicable on all token issuers, cryptocurrency exchanges platforms, wallet operators/providers, and any party facilitating an ICO. The companies are encouraged to ascertain that they have enough insurance coverage before starting the project.