No more crypto ‘hiding’ VASP Bill signed — Ghana opens the gates to global digital finance!
The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill has been signed into law by President John Dramani Mahama.
This happened after Parliament passed the VASP bill after a long and careful review.
Mensah Thompson, the Acting Deputy Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made this announcement on his Facebook page on Tuesday, December 30.
The Bill makes it legal to use, trade, and provide services in the virtual assets (including cryptocurrencies) space, among other things. “The SEC and the Bank of Ghana want to congratulate His Excellency the President, the Minister for Finance, the Governor of the Central Bank, and the Director General of the SEC for their foresight in bringing Ghana one step closer to the next phase of global finance and inclusion.”We would like to thank the VASP market operators, including the big exchanges and traders, for their huge contributions to the bill. Most importantly, we would like to thank the Honorable Isaac Adongo, Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, for his great guidance and support throughout the legislative process.
Mr. Mensah Thompson said, “And finally, thanks to the Minority in Parliament for supporting this bill in a bipartisan way, and to the amazing staff at the SEC and Bank of Ghana who worked day and night to create this strong regulatory framework for the Country.”
The SEC had said that a list of Virtual Asset Services would be licensed and regulated by the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act.
The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPS) Bill was passed by Parliament.
The Bill sets out the rules and laws that will govern Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers in Ghana. The Bank of Ghana, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and any other regulatory body that the Minister of Finance says is relevant are in charge of making sure that these rules are followed. The SEC or the Bank of Ghana will need to give licenses or official registrations to everyone and everything that does virtual asset activities, depending on what they do. The SEC and the Bank of Ghana will write rules and other legal documents to make the Act work.
The SEC said in a statement that, just to be clear, the SEC will license and oversee the following Virtual Asset Services under the Act.
Exchanges for Virtual Assets
Platforms for Trading Virtual Assets
Issuing virtual assets
Tokenization of Virtual Assets
ETFs for Virtual Asset Exchange
Managers of virtual assets
Virtual Asset Investment Consultant
Virtual Asset Brokerage
Advocacy for Virtual Assets (On Securities)
Mining and validating virtual assets (on securities)
Virtual Asset Sandbox (For Securities)
“The SEC wants the general public and investors to know that it will continue to work hard and be dedicated to creating a safe, efficient, fair, and open virtual asset ecosystem where investors are protected and market integrity is maintained,” the statement said.
