The Uruguayan Parliament has been presented with a new cryptocurrency law idea by the executive branch. By giving the Central Bank of Uruguay authority over digital assets, amending its basic charter, and establishing the Superintendence of Financial Services as the body to regulate virtual asset service providers, the measure aims to explain how crypto assets would be governed in the nation.
“With the proposed modifications, both the previously regulated subjects and the newly incorporated entities that operate with virtual assets will be subject to the supervision and control powers of the Central Bank of Uruguay.”
If passed, this legislation will be the first to deal with the legal limbo in which bitcoin exchanges and companies that provide services for virtual assets operate in the nation.
According to the paper, persons that lend financial services associated with the offer or sale of a virtual asset, custody providers, businesses that facilitate the exchange of virtual assets, and third parties are all included in this class.
A new class of organisation called “virtual asset issuer” is introduced by the law, and it is designated as a portal that issues any kind of virtual asset that falls under the regulatory purview or asks for admission of regulated virtual assets on a virtual asset trading platform.
Additionally, the article makes mention of virtual asset securities, which are described as the online versions of well-known financial securities.
The proposed measure places full responsibility for oversight of these activities on the nation’s central bank, similar to other legal proposals in the area that establish institutions as the primary crypto regulatory agencies.
The country has made prior attempts to legalise cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. This was the aim of a bitcoin law initiative that Senator Juan Sartori put out last year.