Panama Curated

DeFi Intel Research Desk2026-07-14Americas

Is crypto legal in Panama? (2026)

Yes — cryptocurrency is legal in Panama. Current status: Legal but unregulated — no crypto-specific statute in force. Oversight sits with No dedicated crypto regulator — SMV, SBP and UAF apply existing law. Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-14).

Framework: No enacted crypto statute. Bill 697 (approved 2022) was partially vetoed and then struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2023; successor bills 247, 326, 424 (2025) and a comprehensive Fintech bill 427 (2026) remain pending. Territorial tax system (Fiscal Code Article 694); OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) signed 2 December 2025.

Panama treats crypto as legal but essentially unregulated. No Panamanian statute specifically governs crypto-assets, and none has ever entered into force, so buying, selling, holding, custodying or transferring digital assets is not prohibited. Crypto is not legal tender — the US dollar is Panama's circulating currency and the balboa is pegged to it 1:1 — but the constitution's monetary-freedom principle lets parties transact in any currency by mutual agreement, which is the legal footing on which Bitcoin, Ether and dollar stablecoins change hands. Because there is no dedicated crypto authority, existing regulators apply their own remits: the securities regulator, the Superintendencia del Mercado de Valores (SMV); the banking regulator, the Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá (SBP); the financial-intelligence unit, the Unidad de Análisis Financiero (UAF); and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) for tax.

The SMV's consistent position, set out across a line of opinions, is that crypto-assets are neither securities nor foreign currency and therefore sit outside the Securities Law: Opinion 7-2018 first said so, Opinions 1-2023 and 5-2023 reaffirmed it, and Opinion 4-2025 confirmed that a non-custodial platform merely exchanging Bitcoin or Ether needs no SMV licence (Opinion 01-2026 similarly placed prediction markets outside securities regulation). The SBP, for its part, states that crypto exchange, investment, purchase and sale fall outside its direct supervisory scope. The net result is a permissive but unlicensed market: firms operate under general corporate, contract and — where applicable — AML law, with no bespoke authorisation to obtain and no register to appear on.

The failed 2022 crypto law and the pending bills

Panama came close to a comprehensive regime once. Bill 697, sponsored by Congressman Gabriel Silva, was approved by the National Assembly on 28 April 2022 and would have regulated the commercial use of crypto, recognised it as a means of payment by mutual agreement, and made room for tokenisation and DAOs. President Laurentino Cortizo partially vetoed it in June 2022, citing anti-money-laundering and fiscal-transparency gaps; the Assembly re-passed an amended version on 28 October 2022 incorporating some of the vetoed articles; Cortizo then referred the text to the Supreme Court of Justice, which in 2023 (reported 14 July 2023) declared the bill unconstitutional and unenforceable. Panama has had no crypto statute since.

From 2025 the legislature has produced a cluster of competing drafts, none yet enacted. Bill 247/2025 — "Regulatory Framework for the Use of Cryptocurrencies and Promoting the Digital Economy," introduced 20 March 2025 and referred to subcommittee on 30 September 2025 — would recognise Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins as voluntary payment methods, require VASPs to register with the UAF, impose FATF-aligned KYC/AML duties and create a National Council for Digital Assets. Alongside it sit Bill 326/2025 (a VASP registration and control framework built to FATF standards), Bill 424/2025 (a further VASP licensing bill) and Bill 427/2026 (a comprehensive Fintech framework that would create a "Licence for Digital Assets and Crypto-Assets" spanning tokens, NFTs and stablecoins), plus an industry proposal from the capital-markets association to the MEF. As of mid-2026 none had passed. Chambers' 2026 review notes there is still no demonstrated alignment between the legislature, the executive (SBP and SMV) and industry, so both the timing and the final shape of any VASP/CASP licensing regime remain pending verification.

Tax treatment

Panama taxes on a strict territorial basis (Fiscal Code Article 694): only Panama-source income is subject to income tax — at a general corporate rate of 25% on net taxable income — while foreign-source income is generally exempt regardless of where it is received. There is no crypto-specific income tax, capital-gains tax, mining tax, staking tax or token-issuance tax; liability turns on the source of the income and the nature of the activity. In practice, gains a Panama resident realises from foreign-source crypto activity generally fall outside Panamanian tax, whereas crypto-denominated business income sourced in Panama is taxable under the ordinary rules. The widely quoted "0% capital-gains" shorthand reflects the territorial exemption for foreign-source gains, not a statutory crypto carve-out — there is no crypto capital-gains statute to point to.

On transparency, Panama has moved ahead of its licensing regime: on 2 December 2025 it signed the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CARF MCAA) and an addendum to the CRS MCAA at the Global Forum's 18th plenary, committing to the automatic annual exchange of crypto-asset account information with partner tax authorities (Panama's CRS regime already runs under Law 51 of 2016). CARF does not tax crypto; it exposes resident crypto accounts to cross-border reporting.

• Capital-gains rate (crypto): no crypto-specific tax; territorial system exempts foreign-source gains
• Corporate income tax (Panama-source): 25% on net taxable income
• Holding-period rule: none — no statutory crypto holding-period regime
• Tax transparency: OECD CARF MCAA + CRS addendum signed 2 December 2025

Travel rule applicability

Status: not yet operational for crypto — pending legislation. Panama has the AML machinery in place — the UAF as its financial-intelligence unit, and Law 23 of 2015 supervising "non-financial regulated subjects" — and it left the FATF grey list in October 2023 after strengthening its AML/CFT system. But because no VASP or CASP regime has been enacted, crypto-asset service providers are not yet designated obliged entities, and FATF Recommendation 16 (the travel rule) has no dedicated statutory footing for crypto transfers in Panama. The pending bills would close this gap — Bill 247 and Bill 326 would register VASPs with the UAF and import the FATF-40 recommendations, including travel-rule duties — but until one passes, crypto travel-rule coverage remains pending verification. Panama's next FATF mutual evaluation is a live driver for finally enacting a regime.

Notable enforcement and regulatory events

• 28 April 2022. The National Assembly approves Bill 697 (crypto payments by mutual agreement, tokenisation, DAOs), sponsored by Congressman Gabriel Silva.
• June 2022. President Laurentino Cortizo partially vetoes Bill 697 over anti-money-laundering and fiscal-transparency concerns; the Assembly re-passes an amended text on 28 October 2022.
• 2023 (reported 14 July 2023). The Supreme Court of Justice declares Bill 697 unconstitutional and unenforceable, ending Panama's first attempt at a crypto law.
• October 2023. FATF removes Panama from its grey list following AML/CFT reforms.
• 16–17 April 2025. Panama City's council votes to accept BTC, ETH, USDC and USDT for municipal taxes, fees, fines and permits — the country's first public institution to do so — with local bank Towerbank instantly converting receipts into US dollars, so no new law was required. Mayor Mayer Mizrachi announced it around Panama Blockchain Week.
• 20 March 2025 / 30 September 2025. Bill 247 introduced and referred to a legislative subcommittee for further analysis.
• 2 December 2025. Panama signs the OECD CARF MCAA and the CRS addendum at the Global Forum's 18th plenary, committing to automatic exchange of crypto-asset information.

No landmark crypto-specific enforcement action has been publicly identified for Panama; the regulators express their posture through SMV opinions (for example Opinion 4-2025 on non-custodial exchange and Opinion 01-2026 on prediction markets) rather than through sanctions. An earlier version of this profile referred to a "2024 SMV warning list of unauthorised crypto-marketing firms"; that claim could not be verified against a primary source this cycle and has been removed rather than repeated.

Public licensed VASP/CASP list

Panama publishes no licensed-VASP or CASP register because no licensing regime exists: the 2022 statute was struck down as unconstitutional and the 2025–2026 successor bills (247, 326, 424, 427) have not passed. Crypto firms currently operate under general corporate and AML law, and the SMV's own opinions confirm that non-custodial exchange activity requires no securities licence. If one of the pending bills is enacted and the UAF (or a designated authority) opens a public VASP register, DeFi Intel will mirror it on a quarterly basis. Until then this list is pending verification. Submit known Panama VASPs to [email protected].

Comparison to neighbours

Compare Panama crypto regulation with three nearby regional jurisdictions:

Doing business in Panama — practical notes

There is no VASP or CASP licence to apply for in Panama today — the enabling statute does not exist. Firms structure around general Panamanian corporate law, and the SMV has confirmed that non-custodial crypto exchange falls outside securities licensing; but custody, fiat on/off-ramps and payment services can still touch the SBP's banking perimeter and the UAF's AML regime, so scope must be checked activity by activity. The territorial tax system is the principal draw: foreign-source crypto gains generally sit outside Panamanian tax and there is no crypto capital-gains statute — but the 2 December 2025 CARF signature means resident crypto accounts will become reportable across borders, and banking access remains bank-by-bank and AML-sensitive even after the grey-list exit. Panama City's acceptance of BTC, ETH, USDC and USDT for municipal payments (via bank conversion to dollars) is a genuine adoption signal, not a change in the law. Anyone planning a licensed build should track Bills 247, 326, 424 and 427 and the executive's response, since Panama's next FATF evaluation is the most likely catalyst for finally enacting a VASP regime — treat any "Panama crypto licence" marketed today as anticipatory, not a licence that presently exists.

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. Claims that could not be verified against a source are omitted or marked pending — we do not republish unverified third-party datasets. Submit corrections and primary-source links to [email protected].

Sources

• Chambers and Partners — Blockchain & Crypto-Assets 2026, Panama: trends and developments (regulators, SMV opinions, pending bills 247/326/424/427, territorial tax, CARF)
• CoinDesk — Panamanian President partially vetoes crypto regulation legislation (June 2022)
• Decrypt — Panama's president vetoes law that would have regulated Bitcoin, legalised DAOs
• Forbes — Panama crypto law aims to make the country a Bitcoin hub (Bill 247, July 2025)
• CoinDesk — Panama City greenlights Bitcoin and Ether payments for tax and city services (April 2025)
• Crypto Briefing — Panama City accepts Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins for tax and fee payments (Towerbank conversion)
• Legal Nodes — Panama crypto regulations: insights for Web3 founders (monetary-freedom principle, territorial tax, Bill 247 VASP proposals)
• PR Newswire — Panama officially removed from the FATF grey list (October 2023)
• KPMG Panama — Panama signs the CARF MCAA and CRS addendum at the OECD Global Forum (2 December 2025)