The Superintendency of the Securities Market of Panama Excludes Cryptocurrencies from Its Oversight

From a mobile phone, anyone in Panama can buy bitcoin, ether, or tokens representing shares of U.S. companies on platforms operating in the country without any type of license. The Securities Market Law does not mention either crypto-assets or those tokenized instruments. The Superintendency of the Securities Market (SMV) has already confirmed this twice. In 2018 and in 2025, it concluded that schemes based on tokens or virtual currencies do not need its authorization to operate in the country. The SMV's Unified Text regulates investment advisors and securities firms in Panama. Cryptocurrencies do not fall under that definition of value or financial asset, so they are outside the jurisdiction of the agency. The current law also does not grant the Superintendency the authority to legislate on crypto-assets. That power would only come if a new regulation is enacted that expressly grants it. In 2025, the SMV analyzed a platform dedicated to the exchange of bitcoin and ether. Its conclusion was that those products are outside of what it supervises and that the platform does not need a license or registration to operate. Panamanian securities firms cannot buy, sell, or custody cryptocurrencies because regulated custody is limited to the instruments that the law defines as securities. In Panama today, buying crypto-assets or foreign stock tokens from a local platform does not require any SMV license because the agency considers those products not to be securities under its Unified Text and that the current law does not give it the power to legislate on them. On November 15, 2018, the entity was the first to take a stance. It determined that the concept of "value" in the Securities Market Law does not include coins or virtual currencies, so bitcoin cannot be considered a value. That same document resolved a query about a token that would represent gold or shares at the investor's request. The Superintendency was blunt: "the 'token' is not considered a value." Almost five years later, on March 23, 2023, it reinforced its stance. It established that there is no regulation in Panama for the use of cryptocurrencies in the securities market and that securities firms cannot custody digital assets. The Superintendency supports its criterion in the definitions of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regarding "virtual assets" and "virtual asset service providers." With that distinction, it separates virtual assets from traditional financial assets that brokerage firms can trade. The last legislative attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies in Panama ended up in the courts. The Executive Branch declared the project approved by the National Assembly to be unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court of Justice confirmed that decision in June 2023. Since then, the legal vacuum persists. Today there are three projects on virtual assets without a date for the first debate: one entered the Assembly in March 2025, another in August, and a third in October of the same year, according to the specialized publication Nexo. It adds that in January 2026, a fourth text was added: a draft framework law on financial technologies that includes crypto-assets within its scope. None of the four has a confirmed date for debate. One of the projects states that the sector has grown in Panama amid the current legal uncertainty. Another proposes incorporating virtual asset providers into the anti-money laundering system, in line with FATF standards that the Superintendency itself already cites in its opinions. Olga Cantillo, executive president of Latinex, told Nexo that Panama lacks digital assets and exchange-traded funds that can be purchased from the country, without the need to go to the United States or Europe. The statement from the executive coincides with the scenario described by the Superintendency: products exist and circulate on platforms accessible from mobile phones, but no local law yet defines how they should be regulated or who should supervise them.

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