Chile Curated

DeFi Intel Research Desk2026-07-14Americas

Is crypto legal in Chile? (2026)

Yes — cryptocurrency is legal in Chile. Current status: Legal and regulated — Ley Fintec (Law 21.521). Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-14).

Framework: Ley Fintec (Ley N°21.521, published January 2023), implemented for crypto-asset service providers by the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF) through Norma de Carácter General (NCG) 502 and 524; anti-money-laundering and travel-rule duties under UAF Circular N°62; taxation under the Ley sobre Impuesto a la Renta as administered by the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII).

Holding, buying, selling and using crypto-assets is legal in Chile, and since the Fintech Law came into force the country has one of Latin America's more developed regulatory perimeters for the businesses built around them. Ley N°21.521 — the "Ley Fintec", published in the Diario Oficial in January 2023 — was the first Chilean statute to recognise and define crypto-assets, describing a virtual financial asset as a digital representation of units of value, goods or services (excluding national and foreign currency) that can be transferred, stored or exchanged digitally. Crucially, the law does not regulate the crypto-asset itself; it regulates the financial services provided in relation to it, and brings the firms that provide those services under the supervision of the CMF, Chile's integrated financial-market regulator.

Three other public bodies share the perimeter. The Unidad de Análisis Financiero (UAF), Chile's financial-intelligence unit, supervises anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing compliance, and the Fintech Law made CMF-registered crypto providers "sujetos obligados" reporting to it. The Banco Central de Chile retains its constitutional authority over foreign-exchange and payment-system matters, is running a central-bank-digital-currency exploration, and in 2026 announced it would build Chile's first dedicated stablecoin framework. The SII administers the tax treatment of crypto gains. The result is a layered but coherent regime rather than a single crypto statute.

The Ley Fintech licensing regime

The Fintech Law creates a single Registro de Prestadores de Servicios Financieros (Registry of Financial Service Providers) held by the CMF, covering seven regulated services: crowdfunding platforms (plataformas de financiamiento colectivo), alternative transaction systems (sistemas alternativos de transacción), intermediation of financial instruments, order routing, credit advice, investment advice, and custody of financial instruments. A crypto exchange does not obtain a bespoke "VASP licence"; instead it must register and be authorised for whichever of these services it actually performs — most commonly intermediation of financial instruments, an alternative transaction system, and/or custody. Authorisation is subject to governance, capital, cyber-security and conduct requirements that the CMF applies on a proportional and modular basis.

The CMF operationalised the regime through NCG 502, issued on 12 January 2024 and effective from 3 February 2024, later refined by NCG 524 and a December 2024 amendment. Providers already operating had to lodge their registration and authorisation applications by 3 February 2025. The process runs in two steps — first inscription in the register, then authorisation to operate — and firms may transact only once authorised. As of April 2025, CMF figures reported to industry showed 179 entities authorised across all Fintech-Law categories (overwhelmingly investment advisers) against more than 300 applications still in process; at that point the only authorised financial-instrument intermediary with a crypto focus was Koywe, a cross-border-payments firm, while the exchange applications of Buda.com and CryptoMarket (CryptoMKT) were still under evaluation as intermediaries. In a later count reported in May 2026, the CMF said 42 entities had been registered specifically under the Fintech Law during 2024–2025, of which 37 had received authorisation to operate. Not every application succeeds: in mid-2026 the CMF rejected the application of the exchange Orionx, finding it had failed to remedy the observations raised or supply the required documentation and client-protection guarantees; Orionx called the rejection "formal, not definitive" and said it would appeal.

Tax treatment

Tax on crypto in Chile is settled and administered by the SII under the ordinary income-tax code — there is no separate "crypto tax" and no flat capital-gains rate. Gains from buying and selling crypto-assets are taxable income. For a natural person not holding the assets through a business, the SII classifies the gain under Article 17 No. 8, letter m) of the Ley sobre Impuesto a la Renta, meaning it is taxed only with the Impuesto Global Complementario (for residents) or the Impuesto Adicional (for non-residents), on a realised ("percibida") basis. The Global Complementary Tax is annual and progressive, running from 0% up to a top marginal rate of 40%, so a Chilean investor's effective rate depends on total annual income rather than on any crypto-specific schedule. Where crypto is held as a business asset, the First Category (corporate) Tax applies under the general rules, with Global Complementary or Additional Tax due on withdrawal of profits.

Two features matter in practice. First, the disposal of crypto-assets is not subject to VAT (IVA): the SII treats crypto as an intangible/incorporeal asset, which falls outside the VAT base regardless of whether the seller is an individual or a company. Second, gains are computed on a realised basis against an inflation-adjusted acquisition cost, so unrealised appreciation is not taxed and there is no reduced rate or exemption for a longer holding period. The SII issued consolidated guidance in Circular N°9 of 30 January 2025, and from August 2025 introduced two informational returns to trace crypto activity — Declaración Jurada (DJ) 1963 for foreign holdings and DJ 1964 for domestic transactions — with a first filing deadline of 30 June 2026.

• Individuals (non-business): gain taxed only with Global Complementary Tax (residents) or Additional Tax (non-residents), progressive 0–40%, on a realised basis — Art. 17 No. 8(m) LIR.
• Business holdings: First Category (corporate) Tax on the gain, plus Global Complementary / Additional Tax on profit withdrawal.
• VAT (IVA): none — crypto-asset disposals fall outside the VAT base.
• Holding-period rule: none — no reduced rate or exemption; unrealised gains are not taxed.
• Reporting: annual income declaration in April, plus DJ 1963 / DJ 1964 informational returns (first deadline 30 June 2026).

Travel rule applicability

Status: yes — UAF Circular N°62, US$1,000 threshold, in force since 1 July 2025. The Fintech Law added CMF-registered fintech and crypto providers to the list of entities obliged to report to the UAF under Chile's anti-money-laundering statute (Law 19.913). The UAF then issued Circular N°62, whose general provisions took effect on 1 June 2025 and whose travel-rule provisions took effect on 1 July 2025. Under it, obliged crypto providers must apply customer due diligence (KYC), report suspicious operations, and — for virtual-asset transfers of US$1,000 or more — transmit and retain identifying information on both the originator and the beneficiary, in line with FATF Recommendation 16. This aligns Chile with the international travel-rule standard already applied across the OECD.

Notable enforcement and regulatory events

• March 2018. BancoEstado and other banks closed the accounts of the exchanges SURBTC (Buda.com), CryptoMKT and Orionx, prompting the exchanges to sue roughly ten banks before the antitrust court (Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia, TDLC) for allegedly coordinated exclusion from the banking system.
• January 2023. Ley N°21.521 (Ley Fintec) is published — the first Chilean law to define crypto-assets and to bring the services around them under CMF supervision.
• 12 January 2024. The CMF issues NCG 502 (effective 3 February 2024) setting registration and authorisation requirements for Fintech-Law service providers; existing firms are given until 3 February 2025 to apply.
• 19 May 2025. The Corte Suprema rejects the appeal by Buda, CryptoMKT and Orionx, upholding the TDLC and confirming that, on the 2018 facts, crypto intermediaries were not part of Chile's formal foreign-exchange market — closing the long-running bank-access litigation in the banks' favour.
• 1 July 2025. The travel-rule provisions of UAF Circular N°62 take effect, requiring originator/beneficiary information for virtual-asset transfers of US$1,000 or more.
• September 2025. The SII announces a crypto audit drive, reporting 13 completed cases yielding revenue close to CLP 5 billion (roughly US$5 million), targeting unreported crypto income and unsubstantiated cost bases.
• May 2026. The Banco Central de Chile announces it will, for the first time, develop a regulatory framework for stablecoins, with a public consultation on a regulatory proposal planned for the second half of 2026.
• Mid-2026. The CMF rejects Orionx's Fintech-Law authorisation application for failing to remedy observations and provide required documentation; Orionx describes the decision as formal rather than definitive and says it will appeal.

Public licensed CASP list

Chile does not publish a dedicated "CASP register" of the MiCA type. Crypto-asset businesses appear instead within the CMF's general Registro de Prestadores de Servicios Financieros, listed under whichever regulated service they are authorised for (intermediation of financial instruments, alternative transaction system, custody, order routing). As of April 2025, Koywe was the only authorised financial-instrument intermediary with a crypto focus, while the exchanges Buda.com and CryptoMarket (CryptoMKT) had applications under evaluation and Orionx's application was subsequently rejected (with an appeal announced). Because the register spans all Fintech-Law categories and is updated as applications are decided, DeFi Intel does not reproduce a static Chilean CASP count here; the authoritative source is the CMF's own Registro de Prestadores de Servicios Financieros. Submit corrections or known Chilean authorisations to [email protected].

Comparison to neighbours

Compare Chile crypto regulation with three geographically adjacent jurisdictions:

Doing business in Chile — practical notes

A firm serving Chilean customers with crypto-asset services must register and obtain CMF authorisation under the relevant Fintech-Law service category before it can operate — there is a two-step process (inscription, then authorisation), and the CMF has shown it will reject applications that do not fully meet the governance, documentation and client-protection standards, as the Orionx decision illustrates. Registered providers are also "sujetos obligados" before the UAF: they must run KYC, file suspicious-operation reports, and apply the US$1,000 travel-rule threshold under Circular N°62. On tax, expect gains to be declared in the annual April income return and taxed at the individual's progressive Global Complementary rate (up to 40%) with no VAT, and to fall within the new DJ 1963 / DJ 1964 informational-reporting regime.

Banking access deserves a specific caution. Chilean exchanges spent years litigating account closures by domestic banks, and in May 2025 the Corte Suprema closed that dispute in the banks' favour — so counterparty banking cannot be assumed to be frictionless, and firms should confirm current arrangements directly rather than rely on any historical roster of "crypto-friendly" banks. Finally, watch two moving pieces: the Banco Central's stablecoin framework, expected to go to public consultation in the second half of 2026 (with backing, audit and AML requirements flagged), and the ongoing build-out of the CMF register as more exchange authorisations are granted or refused. Both could change the compliance calculus within the year.

Methodology and sources

This profile was researched and updated by DeFi Intel's research desk on 2026-07-14 from the primary and secondary sources listed below, prioritising Chilean regulators (CMF, UAF, SII, Banco Central de Chile) and specialist legal analysis. Claims that could not be verified against a source are omitted or marked pending — we do not republish unverified third-party datasets. Where the earlier version of this profile stated that specific exchanges held "full authorisation", that has been corrected against the CMF's actual register. Submit corrections and primary-source links to [email protected].

Sources

• CMF — Fintec: tecnología financiera (regulated services and Fintech-Law register)
• Garrigues Digital — CMF issues the rule governing registration of Fintech-Law entities (NCG 502)
• Anguita Osorio — NCG 502: Fintech-Law register (dates and 3 Feb 2025 deadline)
• FinteChile / Diario Financiero — 179 entities authorised, 300+ pending as of April 2025 (Koywe, Buda, CryptoMarket)
• Tekios — CMF reports 42 entities registered under the Fintech Law in 2024–2025, 37 authorised (May 2026)
• La Tercera — CMF rejects Orionx's Fintech-Law application; exchange to appeal (2026)
• SII — FAQ: taxation of crypto income for individuals (Art. 17 No. 8(m) LIR)
• SII — Circular N°9 of 30 January 2025 (crypto-asset tax guidance)
• SII — Crypto audit drive: 13 cases, revenue close to CLP 5 billion (September 2025)
• Carey — Fintech Law and new obliged parties before the UAF
• Carey — UAF Circular N°62: new AML framework and travel rule (effective June/July 2025)
• La Tercera — Corte Suprema rejects Buda/CryptoMKT/Orionx antitrust claim against banks (19 May 2025)
• 24horas — Banco Central to regulate stablecoins; public consultation planned for H2 2026
• Banco Central de Chile — Exploration of a central-bank digital currency (CBDC)