Cuba announced that it will allow the services of cryptocurrencies inside the island, with prior authorization from the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) as of May 16. According to the Official Gazette, this arises from a regulation made by the BCC in August on the digital currencies in transactionswhich allowed the granting of licenses to providers related to “financial, foreign exchange and collection or payment activities, in and from the national territory.”
These licenses may be granted to individuals and legal entities that may or may not have activities outside the country. For this, the Central Bank will consider the “legality, opportunity and socioeconomic interest of the initiative, the characteristics of the project, the responsibility of the applicants and their experience in the activity.” To avoid fraud, cryptocurrency providers in the country will be controlled.
Although there are no recent statements in this regard by the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, last year the president stated that he was going to study the “convenience” of the use of cryptocurrency so that the country could access financial markets more easily. international, avoiding the complications in the economic sanctions of the United States in the face of an economic crisis. With travel limitations due to the pandemic and the tightening of Washington sanctions, sending family remittances from abroad is becoming more and more complicated, which is why many Cubans resort to cryptocurrencies to ensure that the money reaches their relatives. on the island.