MSTR Cat

Crypto Law/Level VIII · Around the world/8.1 The Americas/Lesson 6

The rest of Latin America

A tour of the smaller Latin American regimes, from Chile’s fintech law and Uruguay’s central-bank model to Bolivia’s lifted ban, Panama’s struck-down bill and Venezuela’s abandoned state coin.

Education, not legal, tax or investment advice. Crypto law differs between countries and states and changes often. Check the current rules where you live with a qualified lawyer or tax adviser before you act.

The lean path

The cheapest, lowest-tax, simplest and most private route the law allows, best first. Each step names the rule it rests on and the condition that keeps it lawful.

  1. Before using any provider, check the supervisor’s free public register: the CMF in Chile under Ley 21.521, or the Banco Central del Uruguay under Ley 20.345. Catch: anti-money-laundering registration alone does not mean conduct, capital or custody supervision.
  2. Bolivia: since Board Resolution 082/2024 of 25 June 2024, banks and electronic payment channels may process crypto purchases and sales, the cheapest lawful on-ramp. Catch: the boliviano remains the only legal tender, so crypto cannot settle debts by force of law.
  3. Panama: no crypto statute exists, because the Supreme Court declared Bill 697 unenforceable on 6 June 2023, so general tax and anti-money-laundering law apply. Catch: treat headlines saying Panama passed a crypto law as wrong.
  4. Venezuela: no lean route; US persons are barred from dealing in Venezuelan government digital currency under Executive Order 13827, and the petro closed on 15 January 2024. Catch: sanctions screening applies to every counterparty linked to the Venezuelan state.
  5. No verified holding-period exemption was found for these smaller regimes, so the leanest position is careful records and home-country tax rules. Catch: your country of tax residence taxes and may require reporting of gains wherever the platform sits.

MaterialsChile’s Ley 21.521 (Ley Fintec) on the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional siteUruguay’s Ley N° 20.345 of 19 September 2024 on virtual assets (IMPO)Banco Central de Bolivia Board Resolution 082/2024 of 25 June 2024

Wonder

  1. Which smaller Latin American countries actually license crypto businesses, and who does it?
  2. Can a country’s court stop a crypto law after the legislature passes it?
  3. What happened to Venezuela’s state cryptocurrency?

Explore

  1. Outside the big markets, Latin America shows every stage of the regulatory cycle: ban, tolerance, registration and licensing. A common driver is the FATF standard on virtual asset service providers, Recommendation 15 (lesson 1.3.7), which pushes countries to register or license exchanges and custodians for anti-money-laundering purposes even when they have no wider crypto policy. Reading any country’s regime therefore starts with two questions: which authority supervises crypto businesses, and is that supervision only about money laundering or also about conduct, capital and custody? The countries below answer those questions differently, and the answers changed quickly between 2023 and 2026.
  2. Chile folded crypto into a general fintech statute. Ley 21.521, the Ley Fintec, was published on 4 January 2023. It defines virtual assets as digital representations of units of value, goods or services, other than money, that can be transferred and exchanged digitally. It requires providers of services such as alternative trading systems, custody of financial instruments, order routing, intermediation, crowdfunding and investment or credit advice to register with the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF), Chile’s market regulator, and the CMF began a phased programme of implementing rules. A crypto business offering one of those services to the public can fall within that registration duty.
  3. Uruguay chose its central bank. Ley N° 20.345 of 19 September 2024 gives the Banco Central del Uruguay (BCU) power to regulate and supervise virtual asset service providers, including those who provide services of buying and selling virtual assets within the definition the BCU adopts, and it also amended Uruguay’s securities legislation. On 21 August 2025 the BCU’s financial services superintendent opened consultation on draft rules for providers. Like Brazil (lesson 8.1.3), Uruguay places crypto businesses with the authority that already supervises banks and payments, rather than with a separate crypto agency.
  4. Bolivia moved from prohibition to permission. Its central bank had barred the use of virtual assets in the national payment system by Board Resolution 144/2020. On 25 June 2024 Board Resolution 082/2024 left that resolution without effect and enabled electronic payment channels and instruments to be used for virtual-asset transactions, so financial entities could process purchases and sales. The bank stressed at the same time that the boliviano remains the only legal tender. The change shows the difference between allowing an activity and giving an asset monetary status, the same line El Salvador crossed and then stepped back from (lesson 8.1.5).
  5. Panama shows that passing a bill is not the end. Its National Assembly approved Bill 697 of 2021, a broad law on the trading and use of crypto assets, but President Laurentino Cortizo objected to it as unconstitutional. On 6 June 2023 the full Supreme Court of Justice upheld the objection and declared the entire bill unenforceable, so it never became law. Headlines about the bill’s passage were therefore misleading (lesson 1.1.7). Panama’s crypto businesses remain subject to general anti-money-laundering and corporate law, and later attempts at a crypto statute have had to start again.
  6. Venezuela is the cautionary case of a state coin. The government launched the petro in 2018; in March 2018 US Executive Order 13827 barred US persons from dealing in any digital currency issued by or on behalf of the Venezuelan government (lesson 1.3.5). After corruption scandals, the authorities shut the petro down: wallets on the Patria platform, the only place it traded, closed on 15 January 2024 and remaining petros were converted into bolívars. A practical check for any country on this list: find the supervising authority’s public register before relying on a provider, and note whether a rule is in force, proposed or struck down.

Key facts

  • Chile’s Ley 21.521, the Ley Fintec, was published on 4 January 2023 and requires providers of listed financial services to register with the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero.
  • Uruguay’s Ley N° 20.345 of 19 September 2024 gives the Banco Central del Uruguay power to regulate virtual asset service providers.
  • On 25 June 2024 the Banco Central de Bolivia’s Board Resolution 082/2024 lifted its 2020 ban on using virtual assets through the payment system.
  • The Banco Central de Bolivia stated that the boliviano remains Bolivia’s only legal tender.
  • On 6 June 2023 Panama’s Supreme Court declared Bill 697 of 2021 on crypto assets unenforceable in its entirety.
  • Venezuela closed the Patria platform wallets holding its state cryptocurrency, the petro, on 15 January 2024.

Exercise nine, six, three, one

9CollectList up to 9 Latin American countries you or people you know deal with, and one crypto rule or institution you know about in each.
6ClusterSort them into 6 groups: banned, tolerated without a regime, anti-money-laundering registration only, full licensing, state coin or legal tender experiment, and unknown.
3DistillReduce the 6 to 3: the groups that carry the most legal uncertainty for a user or a business.
1CrystallizeWrite 1 sentence on how you would confirm whether a crypto rule you read about in one of these countries is actually in force.

Fact check

Dates, figures and claims checked against the published sources listed below.

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