Paraguay
Is crypto legal in Paraguay? (2026)
Partially — holding is legal but activity is limited in Paraguay. Current status: Legal to hold — no comprehensive law. Oversight sits with SEPRELAD (AML) · Central Bank of Paraguay. Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-14).
Legal status
Primary regulator
Stablecoin status
Framework: No comprehensive crypto statute as of 2026. SEPRELAD Resolution No. 314/2021 imposes AML/CFT registration and obligations on virtual-asset service providers; the 2022 crypto-industry bill was vetoed in full by Decree No. 7692.
Paraguay's defining regulatory event remains the 2022 veto. A bill recognising crypto mining as an industrial activity — with electricity-consumption incentives — was sanctioned by the Senate on 14 July 2022, then vetoed in its entirety by President Mario Abdo Benítez through Decree No. 7692 of 29 August 2022, on the argument that mining consumes large amounts of energy while creating little employment. The Senate rejected the veto, but the Chamber of Deputies declined to override it and archived the bill in December 2022. No comprehensive law has passed since; a further mining-regulation bill introduced on 30 May 2024 remains under consideration, and in March 2025 Paraguay signed a cooperation agreement with El Salvador's digital-assets commission to exchange information and practices. What exists today is an AML perimeter: SEPRELAD Resolution No. 314/2021 — Paraguay's first virtual-asset rules, implementing FATF Recommendation 15 — covers mining, exchange, transfer, custody and related financial services.
Tax treatment
Paraguay has no crypto-specific tax code, and DeFi Intel has not verified current tax-authority guidance on digital-asset gains this cycle.
- Capital-gains rate (crypto-specific): Pending verification — consult the local tax authority
- Holding-period rule: Pending verification
Travel rule applicability
Status: AML-obligated sector. Under Resolution No. 314/2021, virtual-asset service providers (PSAVs) must register with SEPRELAD's registry of supervised obligated subjects and run full AML/CFT programmes — KYC, transaction monitoring and mandatory suspicious-transaction reporting to SEPRELAD, in line with FATF standards. Specific travel-rule transfer-data thresholds are pending verification.
Notable enforcement actions
- 2022. Decree No. 7692 (29 August 2022) vetoed the crypto-industry bill in full; the Chamber of Deputies archived it in December 2022 after the override failed.
- 2026. A tribunal convicted two miners, Cristian Daniel Jara Villalba and Ramón Martínez Morínigo, to two-year (suspended) sentences for large-scale electricity theft after a case brought by state power utility ANDE — a precedent ANDE says reaches those who "facilitate, permit, or benefit from" grid abuse. ANDE has also seized rigs at unmetered farms, including 236 machines in Emboscada, Cordillera.
- 2026. ANDE signed a memorandum of understanding with Morphware to redeploy 1,500 of the seized bitcoin miners at ANDE-controlled sites, monetising surplus Itaipú hydropower; tens of thousands of confiscated rigs reportedly sit in state warehouses.
Public licensed CASP list
Paraguay has no prudential CASP licence or register. The public perimeter is SEPRELAD's registry of supervised obligated subjects: PSAVs must complete pre-registration through seprelad.gov.py and face administrative sanctions, from warnings to fines, for non-compliance. Consult SEPRELAD for current registrations.
Comparison to neighbours
Compare Paraguay crypto regulation with three geographically adjacent jurisdictions:
Doing business in Paraguay — practical notes
Holding and trading crypto is not prohibited, but it happens without a bespoke legal framework: the practical obligations are SEPRELAD registration and AML/CFT compliance. Cheap Itaipú hydropower keeps drawing miners, and that is exactly where enforcement bites — unmetered connections and mis-registered operations have produced convictions, seizures and disconnections. With a mining bill pending in Congress and the state itself experimenting with seized rigs, expect the rulebook to move; verify SEPRELAD requirements before structuring.
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
- SEPRELAD — Resolution No. 314/2021 on virtual assets (official text, ES)
- Livieres Guggiari — analysis of SEPRELAD Resolution No. 314/2021
- LexLatin — Decree 7692 and Paraguay's crypto bill (ES)
- Cointelegraph — legislature fails to reverse the presidential veto (Dec 2022)
- Bitcoin.com News — two miners convicted for large-scale energy theft (June 2026)
- Bitcoin Magazine — ANDE–Morphware MOU on seized miners (March 2026)
- Metlabs — blockchain regulation in Paraguay guide (2025)
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Frequently asked questions
Is crypto legal in Paraguay in 2026?
Partially — holding is legal but activity is limited in Paraguay. There is no comprehensive law as of 2026.
What was the outcome of the 2022 crypto-industry bill in Paraguay?
The bill was vetoed in full by President Mario Abdo Benítez through Decree No. 7692 on 29 August 2022, and the Chamber of Deputies archived it in December 2022 after failing to override the veto.
What enforcement action occurred in 2026 involving crypto miners in Paraguay?
A tribunal convicted two miners, Cristian Daniel Jara Villalba and Ramón Martínez Morínigo, to two-year suspended sentences for large-scale electricity theft after a case brought by state power utility ANDE.