Cuba Central Bank Resolution 215/2021 on Virtual Assets

Resolution 215 defines a virtual asset as a digital representation of value that can be traded or transferred digitally and used for payments or investments. The text says the term covers equivalent expressions such as digital asset, cryptoasset, cryptocurrency, virtual currency, and digital currency.

The resolution defines a virtual asset service provider, or VASP, by business activity. Covered activities include exchange between virtual assets and legal-tender currencies, exchange among virtual assets, virtual asset transfer, custody or administration of virtual assets or control instruments, and financial services connected with an issuer’s offer or sale of a virtual asset.

The Banco Central de Cuba is the central gatekeeper. For reasons of socioeconomic interest, it may authorize specified virtual assets in commercial transactions and may license VASPs. The license authority covers operations relating to financial activity, foreign exchange, collections, and payments in or from Cuban territory.

For financial institutions and other legal persons, the rule is permission by authorization. They may use virtual assets with each other and with natural persons for monetary-commercial operations, exchange and re-exchange, or to satisfy pecuniary obligations only when the central bank has authorized that use. State administration bodies and other listed institutions must supervise subordinate entities so that they refrain from unauthorized virtual asset activity.

Resolution 215 emphasizes monetary policy, financial stability, cyber, anonymity, and illicit-finance risks. It directs central-bank units to disseminate preventive information about risks of unauthorized virtual asset use and related legal consequences. The final provisions assign the Superintendent of the Banco Central de Cuba to issue measures needed for prevention and response to money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

The resolution draws a distinction for transactions between natural persons. It states that such transactions are not prohibited, while also saying that natural persons assume civil and criminal risks and responsibilities when they operate with virtual assets or VASPs outside the banking and financial system. Financial institutions must adopt measures to avoid being used for natural-person transactions involving virtual assets or service providers not authorized by the central bank.

Later Cuban measures built on Resolution 215 without being listed by the Gaceta record as amendments to it. Resolution 89/2022 established specific requirements for authorization, operation, regulation, supervision, corrective mechanisms, and license cancellation for VASPs operating in and from Cuba. Resolution 76/2023 designated a Banco Central de Cuba directorate for VASP registration and supervision and set AML/CFT and proliferation-financing prevention rules.

In 2026, the central bank used Resolution 215’s authorization model in Resolution 4/2026, which authorized listed legal persons to use virtual assets for cross-border payment operations directly tied to their corporate purpose. That later authorization was limited to licensed VASPs, approved assets, quarterly reporting, and a one-year term subject to extension. It shows Resolution 215 functioning as a framework for case-by-case authorizations rather than a broad legalization of all virtual asset activity.