The passage of the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act (“the VASP Act”) was announced by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) and come into effect on 1 September 2024.

According to the VASP Act, every Seychelles Companies provide virtual asset services must be registered as a virtual assets service provider (“VASP”). For those companies already operating with virtual asset services shall file the application for registration as VASPs on or before 31 December 2024. Failing to comply with the Act will be subject to offense and result in enforcement action taken by the local authority.

Here are the summarized definitions of Virtual asset and VASP under the new Act:

• Virtual asset: a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded or transferred and can be used for payment or investment purposes and does not include digital representation of fiat currencies, securities and other financial assets.
  
  
• Virtual asset service provider: a business that provides one or a combination of:
  (a) Virtual Asset Wallet Service Providers
  (b) Virtual Asset Exchange
  (c) Virtual Asset Broking
  (d) Virtual Asset Investment Providers
  

For further details about the VASP Act, we will keep clients informed upon receiving any updates from the FSA.