The Gov­ern­ment’s Vir­tu­al As­sets and Vir­tu­al As­set Ser­vice Providers Bill, 2025, pro­pos­es to ban the pur­chase, sale, ex­change or trans­fer of cryp­tocur­ren­cies (which in­clude Bit­coin and Ethereum) un­til De­cem­ber 31, 2027 and is al­so seek­ing to im­pose fines of up to $5 mil­lion for any­one “en­gag­ing in unau­tho­rised vir­tu­al as­set ac­tiv­i­ties.”

The leg­is­la­tion was tabled in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives by Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo on Sep­tem­ber 12 and was on the or­der pa­per for last Fri­day's sit­ting, but was not de­bat­ed. The Bill is sub­ject to amend­ment in both the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the Sen­ate.

The Bill, at clause 4 (1), states that sub­ject to sub­sec­tion 5 (b) "no per­son shall, as a busi­ness or in the course of a busi­ness, car­ry on vir­tu­al as­set ac­tiv­i­ties in or from with­in Trinidad ex­cept where au­tho­rised by the Com­mis­sion." The Com­mis­sion re­ferred to in the Bill is the T&T Se­cu­ri­ties and Ex­change Com­mis­sion, the statu­to­ry body that reg­u­lates se­cu­ri­ties, such as stocks, bonds and oth­er in­vest­ments.