Regulation Of Digital Assets Issuances Should Foster Confidence

Less than two years after the introduction of two fundamental pieces of fintech legislation, one of Bermuda's core digital asset laws has been revised to introduce the regulation of digital asset issuances.

The Digital Asset Issuance Act 2020 (DAIA), which became effective on 6 May 2020, replaces the 'Initial Coin Offering' (ICO) legislation of 2018¹The ICO legislation required that offerings of digital coins or tokens be approved by the Minister of Finance, but once approved, offerings were not regulated on an ongoing basis. However, digital asset offerings became increasingly less attractive worldwide, as the lack of regulation of this space in the majority of countries meant ICOs and other forms of crypto offerings became associated with fraud and scams. , which amended Bermuda's company laws to allow the issuance of digital assets to the public.