Crypto & Digital Assets · Guatemala
Is crypto legal in Guatemala? Rules & regulation (2026)
Guatemala shaded by its crypto & digital assets status
Crypto is developing in Guatemala.
FrameworkNo dedicated crypto law in force. The quetzal is the sole legal tender under Monetary Law (Decreto 17-2002); the Superintendencia de Bancos (SIB) regulates the financial sector. Legislative Initiative No. 6538 ('Ley de Criptomonedas en Guatemala'), introduced May 12 2025, would create the first dedicated crypto framework under SIB supervision, not yet enacted as of mid-2026.
Cryptocurrency activity is legal in Guatemala but operates in a regulatory vacuum: there is no specific crypto statute, no VASP licensing regime, and no formal tax classification for digital assets. The SIB and Banco de Guatemala have issued risk warnings, and Bill 6538, introduced in Congress in May 2025, proposes SIB-supervised registration for all VASP platforms, voluntary-use rules, AML/KYC obligations, and partial tax exemptions, but the bill had not been enacted as of the research date. A parallel AML overhaul bill (No. 6593) would also extend reporting-entity obligations to VASPs.
Key points
As of mid-2026 Guatemala has no statute specifically governing cryptocurrencies or digital assets. Crypto is neither legally banned nor formally licensed, it exists in a legal grey area. VASPs need only standard commercial registration.
Legislative Initiative No. 6538, presented to Congress on 12 May 2025, proposes mandatory SIB registration for all crypto platforms and wallets, KYC/AML obligations reported to the financial-intelligence unit (IVE), voluntary merchant acceptance, and tax exemptions for personal-use trades. Secondary SIB rules were anticipated in mid-2026 if enacted.
The Banco de Guatemala and SIB have formally warned the public that cryptocurrencies are not legal tender, carry no state guarantee, and that VASP platforms are outside SIB prudential supervision and may not meet cybersecurity or risk-mitigation standards.
Bill 6593 (tabled mid-2025), designed to bring Guatemala's AML/CFT framework into FATF compliance, explicitly lists virtual asset service providers as 'reporting entities' obliged to file suspicious-transaction reports to the IVE, a first formal AML hook on the sector.
The Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria (SAT) has no published crypto-specific tax rules; digital-asset gains fall into an undefined zone. Bill 6538 would exempt small personal-use trades and tax commercial crypto activity, but the SAT's formal guidelines were still in development as of mid-2026.
Guatemala is a GAFILAT member; a 2016 FATF mutual evaluation highlighted AML deficiencies. GAFILAT published virtual-asset guidance in August 2023. Guatemala's pending AML bills (6538, 6593) are partly driven by FATF compliance pressure and grey-list risk.
Timeline - major decisions & events
Guatemala's comprehensive new AML statute (Decreto 15-2026) takes legal effect, creating the category Proveedor de Servicios de Activos Virtuales (PSAV) and formally classifying exchanges, custodians, and crypto transfer services as obligated persons required to register with the Superintendencia de Bancos, conduct KYC, and report transactions to the IVE. This marks the first substantive regulatory obligation ever placed specifically on crypto businesses in Guatemala.
Congreso de la República de Guatemala ↗Guatemala's Congress enacted and published the Ley Integral para la Prevención y Represión del Lavado de Dinero u Otros Activos (Decreto 15-2026) in the Diario de Centro América, repealing Decrees 67-2001 and 58-2005. The law brought virtual asset service providers into the supervised-entity framework for the first time, explicitly responding to FATF Recommendation 15 pressure and the threat of being placed on the FATF grey list.
Congreso de la República de Guatemala ↗Representative Shirley Rivera introduced Bill 6538 proposing Guatemala's first dedicated cryptocurrency law, which would require all exchanges, wallets, and service providers to register with the SIB and comply with KYC/AML rules; crypto would be permitted for commercial transactions but not declared legal tender. The bill advanced to committee debate through late 2025 before the broader AML reform (Decreto 15-2026) effectively absorbed its VASP-supervision provisions.
Congreso de la República de Guatemala ↗The SIB published an official press release warning that cryptocurrencies have no legal validity in Guatemala, are not backed by the state, are not classified as foreign currency, and that crypto platforms operating in the country fall entirely outside SIB supervision and may not meet security or AML standards. Although not a prohibition, the communiqué was the most formal and detailed regulatory statement on crypto since 2017 and put users explicitly on notice of legal and financial risks.
Superintendencia de Bancos de Guatemala (SIB) ↗Banguat released Working Paper No. 137, 'Las monedas criptográficas en Guatemala (Análisis técnico y jurídico),' its first comprehensive study of cryptocurrency covering blockchain mechanics, Bitcoin's operation, and the legal landscape under Guatemalan law. The paper concluded that cryptoassets do not meet the Monetary Law's definition of money and identified a regulatory vacuum, laying the analytical groundwork for all subsequent legislative and supervisory discussions.
Banco de Guatemala ↗Acting Banguat President Sergio Recinos publicly stated that Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in Guatemala and carry no state backing, explicitly citing Articles 1–2 of the Monetary Law (Decreto 16-2002) which designate the quetzal as the sole national currency and Banguat as its only issuer. This was Guatemala's first official government pronouncement on the legal status of cryptocurrency and set the baseline position that has since remained unchanged in its core.
Prensa Libre (reporting Banco de Guatemala statement) ↗The joint GAFILAT/CFATF mutual evaluation (on-site visit November–December 2015) assessed Guatemala's AML/CFT framework and found only partial compliance with FATF standards; virtual assets were not yet addressed as the topic was nascent globally. The report established the compliance benchmark that created sustained pressure on Guatemala to modernise its AML laws, directly motivating the 2026 legislative reform.
FATF-GAFI ↗Guatemala - other topics
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