The new regulation opens the door for financial institutions to offer crypto services to large investors.
El Salvador’s National Assembly has approved legislation allowing major financial institutions to apply for licenses to provide services denominated in bitcoin and other digital assets.
The new regulation sets the criteria for accessing such financial services. Credit institutions must have a minimum capital of $50 million to qualify as investment banks, a category regulated separately from traditional commercial banks. Once granted this status, they can apply for various licenses to offer financial instruments linked to digital assets.
The services are exclusively intended for “sophisticated investors” — individuals with more than $250,000 in liquid assets, potentially including bitcoin itself.
The new regulatory framework marks a paradigm shift from the country’s initial strategy. In 2021, El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender, but this policy was later revised in early 2025 to meet the conditions of a $1.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
The legislation introduces three main categories of crypto licenses:
- bitcoin service provider;
- digital asset service provider;
- digital asset issuer.
In practice, the regulation allows institutions to hold bitcoin, issue tokens, and structure crypto-related deals within the current licensing regime rather than creating a new one.
According to Representative Dania González, a supporter of the law and backed by the Ministry of Economy, “the institutional architecture of the Salvadoran financial system will be expanded as a new, but regulated and supervised entity, complementary to the traditional banking system we are all familiar with.”
