The Latin American country of El Salvador has been making waves in the crypto space in recent years, with the country declaring Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender in September 2021, and taking more and more steps towards becoming a Bitcoin-friendly region. Now, the country is setting yet another milestone with the registration of digital asset service provider (DASP) Bitfinex by the regulators of El Salvador.
Delivering Financial Freedom Worldwide Through El Salvador DASP Approval
Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Hong Kong, and its registration as a DASP makes it the first international digital asset platform to receive approval from El Salvador. In a blog post, the company stated that the approval received from El Salvador’s National Digital Asset Commission was a milestone in its long-term strategy “to deliver financial freedom and inclusion to communities and countries around the world.”
Facilitating Digital Asset Issuance and Trading Legally
According to Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of Bitfinex, the digital asset regulatory framework will “enable Bitfinex Securities to facilitate the issuance and secondary trading of assets with clearly defined rights and obligations as outlined in the new digital asset regulatory regime.”
This new digital asset regulatory framework, dubbed the Digital Asset Issuance Law, was passed by the National Congress in January and its main goal is to promote financial innovation and the economic growth of the region.
Not only that, but the registration of Bitfinex will also provide legal certainty to the numerous entities in El Salvador, ranging from small firms to governments, which can now raise capital and interact with investors who deal with the asset class.
Surging Demand for Tokenized Shares, Yield-Bearing Assets
It appears that the demand for products included under the new regulations, such as tokenized shares and yield-bearing assets, has surged recently. According to Jesse Knutson, head of operations at Bitfinex Securities, “issuers are eager to access the digital asset market, attracted by the speed, cost efficiencies, and ease of issuance compared to traditional assets. The digital asset market is a market which, at over $1 trillion in size, is still in its infancy but is growing tremendously quickly.”
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Revolution: Bukele’s Impact
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has played a major role in the development of the region in recent rather years. From accumulating BTC on a macroeconomic level to building a massive vet hospital which accepts Bitcoin as payment to designing a high-tech town, dubbed “Bitcoin City” which will use geothermal energy from nearby volcanoes. President Bukele has highlighted Bitcoin as one of the primary reasons for El Salvador’s boosted tourism levels and fixed legacy, with “There’s a lot of bitcoiners that want to go to the country where bitcoin is legal tender, we have bitcoin conferences.”
Pioneering El Salvador’s Bitcoin Revolution
The registration of Bitfinex as the first DASP, and the implementation of El Salvador’s Digital Assets Issuance Law is just the latest step in El Salvador’s Bitcoin revolution. The license for Bitfinex, as well as the president’s recent decision to eliminate all taxes on technology innovation, marks a huge stride towards creating a nation which fully embraces digital assets and is a great example for the rest of the world to follow. With that being said, it’s no surprise that Bitfinex is “delighted” to be the first international company to receive the Digital Asset Service Provider license in the historic “Bitcoin City.”
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