The rules for the use of digital currency in Cuban territory have been dictated by the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), according to a resolution of this entity that, signed by its Minister-President, Marta Sabina González, was published this Thursday, August 26 in the Official Gazette, and will take effect in 20 days.
Establish the rules on the basis of which the BCC “regulates the use of certain virtual assets in commercial transactions, as well as the granting of licenses to virtual asset service providers for operations related to financial, foreign exchange and of collections or payments, in and from the national territory ”, is among the objectives of the text.
It also defines as a virtual asset “the digital representation of value that can be marketed or transferred digitally and used for payments or investments.” This term includes several meanings used for the same purposes, such as digital asset, cryptoactive, digital currency, cryptocurrency, virtual currency and digital currency. Among the most popular on the island are Bitcoin, Ethereum Litecoin and USDT.
The document Is understood as a provider of virtual asset services “to any natural or legal person who as a business or in business activities is engaged in the exchange between virtual assets and legal tender; to the exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets; the transfer of virtual assets; the custody or administration of virtual assets or instruments that allow control over virtual assets; and the participation and provision of financial services related to the offer of an issuer or sale of a virtual asset ”.
For reasons of socio-economic interest, the BCC may authorize “the use of certain virtual assets in commercial transactions, and grant a license to virtual asset service providers for operations related to financial, foreign exchange and collection or payment activity. , in and from the national territory ».
In its Resolution 215 of 2021, the Central Bank of Cuba requires that when so authorized, “financial institutions and other legal entities may only use virtual assets among themselves and with natural persons, to carry out money-trading, and exchange operations. i recanje; as well as to satisfy pecuniary obligations ”.
Similarly, it states that except in cases authorized by the BCC, “the organs or bodies of the Central State Administration, political, mass and social organizations and other institutions, control and supervise that their subordinate entities and the associative forms of which they are organs of relation, refrain from using virtual assets and the services of these, in commercial transactions, mercantile monetary or to satisfy pecuniary obligations ”.
These digital currency or cryptoactivos the emergence took place in 2009, are a kind of digital payment, without physical existence and have no support in gold or banking institutions of the countries, ie they can not as a whole be controlled by any issuing country or bank. Due to the insecurity and risks posed by scams with such assets moving in portfolios through cyberspace, the BCC parted ways with any criminal action against them.
In this sense, the aforementioned Resolution clarifies that “natural persons assume the risks and responsibilities that in the civil and criminal order arise to operate with virtual assets and service providers of virtual assets that operate outside the System. Banking and Finance, although transactions with virtual assets between these people are not prohibited.