Is crypto legal in Trinidad and Tobago? Regulation & rules (2026)

Parliament passed the Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers Act 2025 and it received Presidential assent on 23 December 2025, coming into force in January 2026. It establishes TTSEC as regulator with investigative, supervisory, and enforcement powers over all virtual asset activities conducted in or from Trinidad and Tobago.

Conducting virtual asset activities as a business in or from T&T is prohibited unless authorized under the TTSEC Regulatory Sandbox (valid through 31 December 2026). Full formal VASP authorization will not be granted before 31 December 2027, making the current regime a transitional one.

Following the Act's commencement, TTSEC issued Certificates of Acceptance to eight inaugural Regulatory Sandbox participants: All Your IT Innovations Ltd, Avocado Technologies Ltd, Cryptt.IO T&T Ltd, Shine Technologies Ltd, Bitzup Exchange Ltd, Zazen Technology Ltd, Quantum Chaos Ltd, and Innotech Labs Ltd.

The legislation was expedited to address AML/CFT/CPF deficiencies ahead of a Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) fifth-round mutual evaluation on-site review scheduled for March 2026, aligning with FATF Recommendations 15 and 16 on virtual assets. The Financial Intelligence Unit of T&T (FIUTT) plays a role in AML oversight of VASPs.

The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago published a working paper in April 2025 analyzing implications of retail CBDC, e-money, and fixed-price cryptocurrency on domestic monetary policy transmission, signaling continued research but no issued CBDC. Industry stakeholders have proposed a TTD-backed stablecoin but no official stablecoin framework exists.

In 2025, TTSEC published a formal ML/TF Risk Assessment of Virtual Assets and VASPs, feeding into the national AML/CFT regime and informing supervisory priorities for sandbox participants.