The Government of St Kitts and Nevis has passed a bill to legalize bitcoin and virtual currencies, help to facilitate the ease of doing business towards cashless society.
The Virtual Assets Bill 2020, will provide for the regulation of Virtual Assets Business received the overwhelming support of the Members of Parliament and was subsequently passed.
The Bill passed in 2020, will allow the conduct of one or more of the following activities or operations for or on behalf of another person
- Exchange between a virtual asset and fiat currency;
- Exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets;
- Transfer of a virtual asset whether or not for value;
- Safekeeping or administration of a virtual asset or instruments enabling control over a virtual asset; and
- Participation in and provision of financial services related to an issue or sale of a virtual asset;
The bill welcomed by Roger ver, a well known figure and CEO of Bitcoin.com. Ver is also a St Kitts citizen obtained citizenship through CBI program in 2014, renouncing his US citizenship.
Mr. Ver, the Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com, said virtual assets or digital currency is the direction in which today’s society is heading. He stated that one of the biggest benefits to digital currency is the ease of conducting business from one location to any other place in the world.
“The big benefit is in addition to being able to pay someone from across the cash register table or across the room, you can pay people across the planet. As you know, many of the cars in St. Kitts are bought from Japan, using virtual currency you can pay from here to Japan instantly for a tenth of a penny, whereas with the bank wire transfers will cost you a bunch of money and take at least several days,” said Roger Ver.
Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris stated that the Virtual Assets Bill, 2020 will ensure that each provider participating in virtual asset services in the Federation are subjected to a registration and supervisory regime which would allow for compliance with the existing Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) legislative framework in St. Kitts and Nevis and by extension, comply with the related international standards set out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Virtual currency payments provide an cheapest alternative solution to banking fee and correspondent banking issues faced by Caribbean.
In 2018, Antigua legalized bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in an effort to transform the island towards cashless society.
