The Premier of Bermuda on the state of cryptocurrency regulation in the country | video

The Spot E ETF and the Fit 21 Act Progress. We continue to watch as other governments are approaching cryptocurrencies by joining us. Now let’s talk about Bermuda, Premier David Burt, Premier, welcome to the show. Melissa. It’s nice to see you again, to see you again. You’re back to consensus in 2024. I have to ask you what you’re looking forward to, given what’s going on in the market. It’s a little different feeling than last year. Well, I guess so. I mean, my first consensus was in 2018. So I’m a little old hat on this one, I guess you’d say. Uh but from the perspective of what we’re doing in Bermuda, we’re just here to see the companies. We know we have great companies being offered in Bermuda. We know that people have been able to do things in Bermuda that are struggling to do another jurisdiction around the world and that we have provided regulatory clarity since 2018 with names like Coinbase and Circle and others that are on the inside and those that they are coming on board. We’re just happy with the progress and we’re here, our regulator is here, the head of our regulatory agency is here. Our other regulators are service providers and we are only here to ensure that those who wish to do business internationally know they have a home in Bermuda. So, Bermuda usually announces a partnership with a company called Guia. Tell us just a little bit about what it means, what it looks like and what it will mean for Bermuda in the future. Well, I think that was a really big announcement: we are a subsidiary of Bank Colombia. They are um and they launched a stablecoin, a Colombian rap uh RT Peso in Bermuda out um under our regulatory regime. And this is just an example of the type of regulation that we have in place where a company out of Colombia thought that the best place to launch a stablecoin for the Colombian peso would be in Bermuda, that it would be regulated and that they could use it and expand. . And so from that perspective, those are the kinds of important elements of the work that’s also been done through Alpha, which has been working with Bermuda for quite some time. And so, from that perspective, it just demonstrates the things that we’re able to do under our regulatory regime, which frankly can’t be done in many other places in the world. Tell me how it works, right? Guia is a Colombian subsidiary of Bank Colombia but regulated in Bermuda. How does it work? How does it work? How does it work, how does it work? How, why does it exist and why is this Colombian subsidiary regulated in Bermuda? What type of protection do the citizens of Bermuda and Colombia have and who will use the product? Well, I think that’s a great question and we need to remember Bermuda’s history. Bermuda is one of the most respected international financial centers on the planet and this is why global banks and others feel comfortable coming to Bermuda under our regulatory regime. Look, we have some of the largest insurers in the world. We have asset managers in Bermuda and now we have large digital asset companies that are realizing how they can do things in digital finance to serve global markets. So you have to be a Bermuda company to be regulated on the Bermuda Monetary. They set up a branch and are able to do something there because they looked at all the other jurisdictions in the world, all the other places. And they said this is the right place where we can actually issue stable coins. So they are not the only stablecoin. I mean, Mountain Mountain Protocol is there doing other things there, you know, so we’ve done things in Bermuda and pushed it, I guess I’d say the edge of innovation. So one thing that’s really interesting to me, many jurisdictions, uh I mean many, there are some countries that would panic at the idea of ​​a stablecoin pegging to another nation’s currency. Uh, we’ve seen, you know, these things have been banned in some countries. Um, you know, what gives you comfort in that. So, you know, how are you so flexible that this is a product that you’re totally on board with. So our regulator is really good at focusing on the risks inherent in any technology rather than trying to pigeonhole something. So let’s see what the risks are. Our regulator identifies those risks and makes sure that those risks are managed to ensure that the people who hold these assets are protected, to ensure that, you know, the security risks are addressed to ensure the AM L address. Here’s what we have Done. Um, and we were successful. It’s important to know Nick as you might understand. We’ve been doing this since 2018. So it’s not like we’re just trying to figure out how to do it. We’ve been doing this for a long time. We’re kind of, you know, I guess you could call us the og’s when it comes to regulation and cryptocurrency. But from this point of view, we are proud of what we have achieved and companies are taking notice. Now, I asked Robert earlier, how closely are you looking at other regions that are courting, uh web three hubs. They’re really focusing on regulation. They’re really focusing on starting crypto companies maybe from other places where there isn’t as clear regulation on their jurisdictions. How closely are you looking at them and what is giving Bermuda a competitive advantage there. So from that standpoint, we’re not necessarily trying to compete with, um, you know, in 2018, we were at our first consensus that it was more of a strategy from a company, uh from a national perspective. But we realized that because of the high standards that we have, that we can’t be all things to all people in all companies, we want the big, established names to know what they need to do to make sure they can stand up to the competition. control of our regulator. You have to remember that when it comes to AM L, for example, let’s start with this, there were no Fat F rules, we had to come up with our own. And when Fat F released their rules, our rules were actually higher than theirs. So we had to relax our rules to basically align them, we know how to do that in the rulebook. The same goes for other jurisdictions, but when you look at companies like Coinbase, who will look around to see all the things, or like Wea who will look around our bank Columbia to see all the various jurisdictions, they will choose quality. We are not trying to target low levels, we want the best companies because long-term digital finance will be the future. What you see here at the consensus is the innovation of the future economy. And Bermuda has always been a home of innovation and we will continue to attract those companies that want to be truly credible to their shareholders, credible to the investors who raise that money. And having a regulatory stamp of approval from Bermuda is the best ticket to go ahead and do it. So, looking into the future, you know, one of the conversations I always have with people is that every time you think you have your mind set on cryptocurrencies, they come and build some other brand new novel, you know, weird thing. Um, how do you look into the future, you know, continuing to adapt and update, you know, any regulatory framework to address, you know, new leveraged products or uh tokenizing, you know, what not? Well, that’s a great question. Um, when we talk about leveraged products, we have regulated yield products for the last three years. And so we’ve had people issuing items that have produced products from Bermuda for a while. But when we talk about what will happen in the future, our next step will definitely be about digital identity. And we look at it from the perspective of a regulatory issue and a technology issue where we will be licensing digital identity service providers and people who have those particular credentials will be able to you, but we will be able to, you know, have more access easy access via AM L controls, etc. This will help our companies in the space manage compliance costs because compliance costs are a challenge for all industries that deal with regulation. Um, I would say regulated markets, but our perspective is looking there. So if you look at our history, we started with the basics, then we added clarity for derivatives, then we added clarity for staking and lending. Now we will get into digital identity. We can’t wait to see how we will handle PS and these types of objects. So for us it’s continuous evolution. But the important thing to remember is that this is nothing new. We have been doing this since 2018 on the topic of digital identity. I want to take this a little bit out of left field here. I know that there are some Latin American countries that are actually implementing digital identity protocols within their government services. And now that you’re looking at digital identity from a regulatory perspective, would the government consider implementing digital identities, uh, so that people can have better access to some of the government documents that are so difficult to get . I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to get a birth certificate or a marriage certificate. That’s nice, it’s a pretty laborious process from a government-based credentialing perspective. Uh, we’re doing that within our healthcare sector where we’re issuing, things and other issues may advance. But I think it’s important to note that both in the approach that we take towards CBD CS and stable coins where we don’t want to issue one, and in the approach that we leave it to the private sector and everything that is regulated is accepted by the governor of the Utah or whether or not we look at how we proceed in the digital identity space where whoever has the regulatory authority to issue it, will be accepted in Bermuda. We think it’s a better way of working. We think it’s better for the market to move forward and bring these solutions rather than the government to do it. And this is Bermuda’s unique proposition because, as you know, we are a very small country, 20 square miles, 65,000 people. But we’re the ideal testing ground for companies to say, let’s go ahead and do this so we can grow globally. People will not make much money trading the Bermuda market. But if they can hone in on the Bermuda market, they will be able to raise capital and scale these issues globally. And that’s where we intend to go well, Premier, as you know, we’re at the 2024 consensus, we’re having lively conversations here all day before we let you go. What are you looking forward to doing? It doesn’t have to be anything official. Also, there are a lot of events happening outside of what’s going on here. Uh, I think there’s going to be a karate fight tomorrow. What are you looking forward to doing? Um, yes. Uh, there’s a karate fight tomorrow. I mean, as far as I’m concerned, I’m here, as I said, with the delegation, we have a delegation of 20 people who came here from Bermuda with our regulator, our law firms, our service providers, the people from the our concierge service and we will meet with companies in the industry that are looking to advance. I mean, consent is something I’ve been doing for a while. I enjoy it, meeting friends like Robert and others. So I’m looking forward to it and then, um, unfortunately I’m not here on Friday because I have to leave bright and early to go back to parliament in Bermuda on Friday. So I can’t have, I guess, all, all the experience, but I’m happy to be here with the premier of my team. It was a pleasure to have a conversation with you again here at Consensus. Thanks for joining us. It’s nice to see you again. That was Bermuda Prime Minister David Bart.

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