Chile Fintech Law No. 21,521: Cryptoasset and Financial Technology Provisions

The statute defines virtual financial assets or cryptoassets as digital representations of units of value, goods, or services, excluding money in national or foreign currency, that can be transferred, stored, or exchanged digitally. It also defines a financial instrument to include an intangible asset designed, used, or structured to generate monetary returns, represent unpaid debt, or represent a virtual financial asset.

This structure does not create a stand-alone crypto exchange statute. Instead, cryptoasset-related activity becomes relevant when a token, platform, advisory activity, custody arrangement, transaction system, or intermediation model fits within the law’s defined financial-technology services or within CMF rules issued to implement the law.

Title II brings specified technology-based financial services within the CMF perimeter. The regulated services are:

• crowdfunding platforms;
• alternative transaction systems;
• credit advisory and investment advisory services;
• custody of financial instruments;
• order routing; and
• intermediation of financial instruments.

For cryptoasset market participants, the most relevant categories are likely to be alternative transaction systems, intermediation, custody, order routing, and investment advice, depending on the facts of the service and the instrument involved.

Professional providers of the regulated services generally must be entered in the CMF’s Registro de Prestadores de Servicios Financieros and, for several activities, obtain authorization before beginning the service. The law also allows certain already supervised financial institutions to provide specified fintech services under their existing regulatory perimeter or supplementary CMF rules.

The statute assigns CMF rulemaking authority for registration, authorization, information delivery, governance, risk management, capital, guarantees, operational capacity, and related obligations. NCG No. 502, issued in January 2024 and effective from February 3, 2024, is the central CMF rule for the Title II provider regime. Later CMF updates refined those rules, including amendments for existing supervised institutions that provide fintech services without separate registration.

The custody provisions are important for cryptoasset-linked instruments because the law defines custody as holding financial instruments, money, or foreign currency for or on behalf of third parties in connection with financial-instrument flows, sales, purchases, or collateral. Intermediaries, order routers, and custodians may become subject to guarantee, minimum capital, governance, risk-management, cybersecurity, and information-security standards when statutory thresholds and CMF rules apply.

The law also amends Chile’s anti-money laundering framework. It adds certain registered financial service providers and payment-initiation providers to the reporting perimeter of Law No. 19,913 and allows the Unidad de Análisis Financiero to issue differentiated and proportional instructions based on the nature and risk of the relevant operations. Separately, providers of Article 2 services must report annually to Chile’s tax authority on customer balances and transactions involving covered financial instruments.

Title III creates Chile’s Sistema de Finanzas Abiertas, a consent-based open finance framework for the secure exchange of customer financial data and payment-initiation services. CMF issued NCG No. 514 in July 2024 to regulate the system. In June 2026, CMF amended that rule, incorporated a technical annex, and postponed entry into force to July 2027, with greater implementation graduality and testing arrangements.

This profile is a legal-reference summary of the cryptoasset and fintech-facing provisions of Law No. 21,521. It does not address every amendment made by the law and should not be read as legal, tax, investment, or compliance advice.