Bitfinex Securities El Salvador was granted the first digital assets service provider license issued by El Salvador under its new Digital Asset Issuance Law regime.

The license was issued by the National Digital Asset Commission, which is in charge of regulating the industry in El Salvador.

Bitfinex Securities El Salvador

Bitfinex will establish a new entity called Bitfinex Securities El Salvador, S.A. De C.V. — which will operate separately from Bitfinex Group’s similar platforms outside the country, according to the announcement.

The company will offer services in issuing and trading tokens, as well as tokenizing financial instruments like securities and bonds. Bitfinex Securities’ head of operations Jesse Knutson said:

“Issuers are eager to access the digital asset market, attracted by the speed, cost efficiencies and ease of issuance compared to traditional assets. The digital asset market is a market which, at over $1 trillion in size, is still in its infancy, but is growing tremendously quickly.”

Bitfinex said it already has issuances in the pipeline and will announce them in the coming months.

Digital Asset Issuance Law

Building upon El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender, the Digital Asset Issuance Law aims to establish a concrete regulatory regime around the issuing of digital assets and the tokenization of traditional assets to foster innovation in the financial industry.

El Salvador’s National Congress inaugurated the law in January 2023 and Bitfinex is the first crypto firm to secure a regulatory license under the regime.

El Salvador intends to become a hub for digital assets in Latin America and has made steady progress toward that goal since adopting BTC. Its progressive approach toward regulating crypto has attracted many individuals and firms to move to the country.

However, its choices have also raised the ire of international financial regulators like the IMF, which has repeatedly warned the country to abandon its pro-Bitcoin stance.