While most of the countries are still afraid to legalize cryptocurrency, Bermuda is far ahead of them in this case. Bermuda, a British country attempts to regulate cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). The nation looks forward to cultivating a framework to promote the on growing crypto industry. Adhering to this, the Monetary Authority system of the country has recently drafted a bill called "Bermuda’s fintech strategy" to legalize ICOs and cryptocurrency businesses.

Wayne Caines, the minister of national security of Bermuda, believes that,

"The emergence of new financial products and services created through the use of technology has opened new and exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses."

On April 12, Mr. Caines demonstrated the regulation in a conference of over 150 delegates consisting of key business partners of the country. He acknowledged that virtual cryptocurrencies and blockchain are fast-growing technologies which have instilled interest of its citizens in it and thus stresses on the development of such regulations to lead the global market.

The drafted regulations identify this sector as an amalgamation of multiple business models comprising of ICO issuers, crypt exchange providers, crypto miners & traders and crypto wallet providers & users. It states that the law doesn’t recognize virtually traded currencies as a part of the legal tender. The draft also aims at preventing money laundering, and thus any crypto business must first gather the critical information of its customer before providing any services.

The ICO issuer will also be strictly scrutinized. It will have to seek permission from the finance ministry after providing the mandatory information as per the Companies and Limited Liability Company (ICO) Act. The required information consists of:

  • The name of the company issuing ICO the virtual asset it intends to offer

  • The timeline that the company aims to follow for the development and implementation of its asset

  • The targeted amount it seeks to raise from the ICO Rights and Transfer policies including features and functionality it plans to offer

  • The technology it intends to use with confirmation that their platform is technically robust enough to handle purchases and store investor data

  • Consent for auditing ICO transactions

Mr. Caines is delighted to be one of the fewer countries to particularly regulate ICOs and believes that the potential regulatory ecosystem will facilitate smooth functioning of ICOs for the companies looking to develop virtual currency systems in Bermuda. Such steps may attract startups and investment firms to the country thereby creating new opportunities, careers and employment with surplus govt. revenues.