They explain that as long as there is no express and binding prohibition of its use, acquisition, or possession, operations with cryptocurrencies are legal and valid.
María Paula Rodríguez Ortegón, Senior Lawyer of the RC&M SAS group in Colombia, shared with Cointelegraph en Español a summary of the current panorama of crypto assets in Colombia, a country that according to her, like many other Latin American states, do not have regulations that clearly and explicitly enables the use of crypto assets within its legal system. Hence, they use the current legal framework and legal figures of the Civil Code and the Commercial Code, which are far from the nature and multidimensional scope of cryptocurrencies.
Within the Colombian national framework, as explained by Rodríguez, the Arenera or sandbox of the Financial Superintendence of Colombia (SFC) is already in force in terms of crypto assets, based on formalized alliances between entities supervised by this authority and exchanges. This year they expect the approval of the law that precisely determines not only the nature of cryptocurrencies, but also the scope of their transaction and disposition, as well as the requirements to be providers of virtual asset services or exchange platforms and other possible qualities within an environment of acquisition and use of cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies Regulations in Colombia Explained
“Based on various statements by the different authorities of the national order through concepts and circulars, which are formal and primary sources of law in Colombia, they have full regulatory effects. They granted cryptocurrencies the nature of a fungible object of transaction, and regulated this scope based on the definition enshrined in article 663 of the Colombian Civil Code”, commented Rodríguez.
“The Bank of the Republic of Colombia (BanRep) and the Financial Superintendence of Colombia (SFC), argued that despite this quality, they cannot recognize cryptocurrencies as a legal tender means of payment, nor are they part of the exchange rate regime in the country. This makes it impossible to hold liberatory power that extinguishes obligations, as occurs with the Colombian peso. Likewise, because they do not hold the status as currencies, we cannot use them for payment or defrayment of operations covered by the exchange regime, nor can market intermediation companies operate with them. The latter entity recognizing that cryptocurrencies, their operations, and actors involved in the execution of any type of activity carried out directly or indirectly with the same, is not subject to their inspection, surveillance, and control,” she added.
Rodríguez mentioned that cryptocurrencies would not constitute money or an instrument of value, and because of this premise, they do not meet the possibility of extinguishing obligations, therefore, we cannot use them in the financial or securities market. However, this is not an obstacle to concluding that any operation, activity, or possession of crypto assets represents an illicit or prohibited action. On the contrary, it is viable from its condition of fungible good, to be the object of typical operations such as the sale, mutual, and cession in payment, regulated by the general Colombian civil and commercial regulations.
Superintendency of Companies
Rodriguez has also pointed out that, according to the Superintendency of Companies, it is feasible to make contributions in kind of crypto assets to commercial companies. In addition, since 2020 there is the obligation to apply the system of self-control and comprehensive risk management of ML/TF/FPADM, related to operations and services with virtual assets, recognizing its use within the Colombian legal system.
Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF for its acronym in Spanish)
Regarding the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF), Rodríquez says that this entity regulated this matter in a timely manner from an external circular. According to this, the report of operations not only covers those classified as suspicious, but also all general operations deployed and active, inactive, or unlinked clients of the platform, if they are framed within the amounts also indicated by this entity.
By Audy Castaneda
