The Digital Asset Business Act 2018 (the Act) is the statutory basis for regulating Digital Asset Business (DAB) in Bermuda. The Act provides for a licensing regime for any person or undertaking (unless otherwise exempted) which carries out any of the following activities:
- issuing, selling or redeeming virtual coins, tokens or any other form of digital assets
- operating as a payment service provider business utilising digital assets
- includes the provision of services for the transfer of funds
- operating as an electronic exchange
- providing custodial wallet services
- operating as a digital assets services vendor
WHAT IS A DIGITAL ASSET?
According to the Act, “digital asset” means anything that exists in binary format and comes with the right to use it and includes a digital representation of value that—
- is used as a medium of exchange, unit of account, or store of value and is
- not legal tender, whether or not denominated in legal tender
- is intended to represent assets such as debt or equity in the promoter
- is otherwise intended to represent any assets or rights associated with such assets; or
but does not include—
- a transaction in which a person grants value as part of an affinity or rewards programme, which value cannot be taken from or exchanged with the person for legal tender, bank credit or any digital asset; or a
- digital representation of value issued by or on behalf of the publisher and used within an online game, game platform, or family of games sold by the same publisher or offered on the same game platform
