President Alexander Lukashenko signed Presidential Decree No. 19 on January 16, 2026, creating a formal legal regime for “cryptobanks” under close state supervision. The stated intent is to integrate digital-token activity into Belarus’s banking architecture while reinforcing the High-Tech Park (HTP) as a financial-IT hub.
Decree No. 19 defines a cryptobank as a joint-stock company and conditions eligibility on two gates: residency in the HTP special economic zone and registration in a dedicated registry maintained by the National Bank of Belarus. The decree also authorizes these entities to combine traditional banking and payment services with digital-token operations under a single regulated perimeter.
How the cryptobank regime is structured
Rather than limiting activity to a narrow subset of tokens, the framework permits a broad set of digital-token functions, including deposits, transfers, and token-linked lending, alongside standard financial services. In practical terms, the regime is designed to make token activity “bankable” only when it runs through approved, supervised entities.
At the same time, the decree hardwires prudential and consumer-protection constraints into the model. Operational access is conditioned on HTP residency and National Bank registration, supported by capital-adequacy and risk-management requirements aligned with non-bank credit institution standards. It also requires AML/CFT controls and explicit consumer-rights safeguards, and it introduces a full fiat-backing requirement intended to limit balance-sheet risk tied to token operations.
Supervision is split across two governance layers. The National Bank is positioned as the financial supervisor with responsibility for prudential rules, AML/CFT enforcement, and consumer protection, while the HTP Supervisory Board oversees the special legal regime and the innovation/technology dimension. This division allocates systemic-risk and consumer outcomes to the central bank while reserving operational-innovation oversight to the HTP structure.
Implications for market participants
For traders, treasurers, and product teams, the framework creates a clear trade-off between access and autonomy. Registered cryptobanks gain a sanctioned path to integrate tokenized services into banking rails—potentially simplifying custody, settlement, and fiat on-ramps for clients willing to operate inside strict compliance controls. The same design increases centralized oversight and compliance cost, which can be a non-starter for projects that prioritize decentralization or cross-border neutrality.
Execution risk now shifts to implementation and enforcement. Key watchpoints include how the National Bank populates the registry, how consistently it applies capital and AML rules, and how strictly it enforces the fiat-backing requirement in live operations. The decree also sits alongside Belarus’s broader roadmap, including plans to bring a digital ruble into full-scale operation in the latter half of 2026—an interaction that will test whether tokenized products can scale inside a tightly governed financial perimeter.
