Is crypto legal in Cambodia? Regulation & rules (2026)

A May 2018 joint statement by the NBC, SERC and General-Commissariat of National Police declared that buying, selling, trading or mobilizing funds in cryptocurrencies without a license is illegal and penalizable. That restrictive posture has now been overlaid by formal licensing regimes rather than fully repealed.

The NBC Prakas permits commercial banks and payment service/settlement institutions to provide limited cryptoasset services and to hold exposure, subject to prior NBC approval. It splits assets into Group 1a (tokenized securities), Group 1b (stablecoins) and Group 2 (unbacked crypto), and bans direct bank exposure to Group 2.

Banks must apply existing prudential treatment to Group 1 exposures, with Group 1a (tokenized securities) capped at 5% of Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital and Group 1b (stablecoins) capped at 3% of CET1.

SERC Prakas 093 requires any Digital Asset Service Provider to be licensed before operating, mandates passing the securities regulatory sandbox, sets minimum capital of about KHR 40 billion (~USD 10 million), and issues licenses valid 2 years initially (3 years on renewal).

Prakas 093 covers digital-asset business 'for investment purposes' and explicitly excludes payment transactions involving digital/virtual assets, which remain under the NBC's domain — creating a dual NBC/SERC supervisory structure.

Cambodia has not enacted crypto-specific tax legislation; general tax rules apply where activity is taxable, and tax obligations must be settled in Khmer Riel or approved fiat rather than crypto. Specific treatment of gains, staking, mining and VAT on crypto remains undefined.