San Marino

DeFi Intel Research Desk2026-07-14Europe

Is crypto legal in San Marino? (2026)

Yes — cryptocurrency is legal in San Marino. Current status: Legal · authorised/registered firms. Oversight sits with BCSM (crypto-assets) · San Marino Innovation (Type B / DLT register). Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-14).

Framework: San Marino is not an EU or EEA member, so the EU's MiCA regulation does not apply directly. Instead the Republic built its own regime, expressly modelled on EU Regulation 2023/1114 (MiCAR). The enabling law is Law No. 132 of 15 September 2023; the operative rules are set out in Delegated Decree No. 2 of 3 January 2024, ratified and replaced by Delegated Decree No. 138 of 29 August 2024, together with two supervisory regulations that took effect on 2 October 2024 — one issued by the Banca Centrale della Repubblica di San Marino (BCSM) on crypto-assets, and one by San Marino Innovation on the Register of DLT Operators (Regulation 001/2024).

The framework splits tokens into two classes. Type A tokens are crypto-assets — sub-divided into linked crypto-assets, e-money tokens and cryptocurrencies — and fall under the authorisation and prudential supervision of the BCSM, which added two new reserved activities to Annex 1 of the LISF (financial-services law): "J-bis" (issuing linked crypto-asset services) and "L-bis" (crypto-asset services). Type B tokens are tokenised informational documents other than crypto-assets and sit with San Marino Innovation. Firms conducting the reserved activities must be authorised as "crypto-asset firms" (or be banks/other financial enterprises meeting the criteria) with defined capital, governance, organisational and ownership requirements, and issuers must publish a white-paper subject to prior notification to or authorisation by the BCSM. This 2024 regime builds on San Marino's earlier Delegated Decree No. 37 of 27 February 2019 (ratified 6 June 2019), issued via San Marino Innovation, which first legislated for utility and security token offerings and required a white-paper and summary to be filed roughly 20 days before an offer.

Tax treatment

Under the token-offering decree, income realised through transactions carried out with the regulated tokens is exempt for General Income Tax (IGR) purposes, with an "assimilation" mechanism applied for tax and accounting: utility tokens are treated like foreign currency, and security/investment tokens like shares, participatory financial instruments or debt securities depending on their nature. General personal capital-gains treatment of crypto held outside the regulated regime is pending verification against a primary tax source.

• Regulated token-transaction income: exempt for IGR (General Income Tax) purposes under the decree
• Token characterisation: utility tokens ≈ foreign currency; security tokens ≈ equity/participatory instruments or debt securities
• Capital-gains rate (outside regime): Pending verification

Travel rule applicability

Status: AML/CFT via the MONEYVAL perimeter. San Marino is a member of MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe's FATF-style regional body; its mutual-evaluation report was adopted in April 2021 and follow-up reports were published in 2024. Crypto-asset firms authorised or registered under the 2024 framework are brought inside the national AML/CFT regime and the DLT operators register. The specific FATF travel-rule transfer-data thresholds as transposed into Sammarinese law are pending verification against a primary source.

Notable enforcement actions

• Sanctions regime. The DLT/crypto decree provides administrative fines — reported at a base range of roughly €1,000 to €30,000, rising to up to 10% of a firm's total revenues in the previous financial year for serious violations.
• Specific cases. No individual public enforcement action against a crypto-asset firm was identified in this research pass — pending verification. Submit documented San Marino enforcement actions to research@defi-intel.com.

Public licensed CASP list

San Marino Innovation maintains a public Register of DLT Operators (established by Regulation 001/2024, in force 2 October 2024) with four sections: issuers of non-crypto-asset tokens; crypto-asset issuers; non-crypto-asset token service providers; and crypto-asset service providers. Provision of crypto-asset services or issuance of linked crypto-assets requires prior registration there, following BCSM authorisation for Type A activity. The BCSM also keeps registers of authorised financial enterprises. The current roster of individually named authorised crypto-asset firms is pending verification — consult the BCSM and San Marino Innovation registers for live status, and submit known licensees to research@defi-intel.com.

Comparison to neighbours

San Marino is an enclave surrounded entirely by Italy. Compare its regime with Italy and two other nearby European frameworks:

Doing business in San Marino — practical notes

Serving San Marino residents with crypto-asset services in 2026 means operating inside the BCSM/San Marino Innovation perimeter: authorisation as a crypto-asset firm (or as a bank/financial enterprise) for the J-bis and L-bis reserved activities, registration in the Register of DLT Operators, a notified/authorised white-paper for token issuance, and compliance with the national AML/CFT rules. Because San Marino is outside the EU/EEA, a Sammarinese authorisation does not passport into the EU under MiCA even though the domestic rules track MiCAR — firms targeting the EU still need an EU authorisation. Verify current BCSM regulations and capital thresholds before structuring.

Methodology and sources

This profile was researched and updated by DeFi Intel's research desk on 2026-07-14 from the primary and secondary sources listed below. Claims that could not be verified against a source are omitted or marked pending — we do not republish unverified third-party datasets. Submit corrections and primary-source links to research@defi-intel.com.

Sources

• Banca Centrale della Repubblica di San Marino (BCSM) — official site and registers
• San Marino Innovation — DLT / Register of DLT Operators (Regulation 001/2024)
• HLB San Marino — 2 October 2024 crypto-asset regulations, Type A/B tokens, J-bis/L-bis, MiCAR reference
• Toccaceli Bronzetti — Delegated Decree 138/2024, token classification, DLT register, tax and sanctions
• Blockchain ConsultUs — 2019 blockchain decree (Delegated Decree 37/2019), utility/security tokens, tax exemption
• MONEYVAL — San Marino follow-up report (2024); MER adopted April 2021