# Bahamas

> Bahamas (Securities Commission of The Bahamas · Central Bank): Issuance of privacy tokens barred, trading not. Region: Americas. Attribution required: A regulated firm must be able to attribute activity to an identified person, and assets or accounts that make that impossible are barred at the licensed perimeter. This is a rule about attribution, not about whether amounts are public.

Part of the Soda Labs Privacy Hub regulation map, which reads the instruments
themselves rather than summarising the summaries: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation

## Key facts

- Entry type: Jurisdiction
- Region: Americas
- Subject: Issuance of privacy tokens barred, trading not
- Authority: Securities Commission of The Bahamas · Central Bank
- Stance on on-chain confidentiality: Attribution required. A regulated firm must be able to attribute activity to an identified person, and assets or accounts that make that impossible are barred at the licensed perimeter. This is a rule about attribution, not about whether amounts are public.
- Tags: issuance ban, trading permitted, Sand Dollar, tiered CBDC
- Canonical page: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-bahamas

## What it actually says

The Bahamas holds the sharpest contradiction in this section, and both halves are deliberate. Its 2024 act bars issuers from offering privacy tokens for sale in or from the jurisdiction, and makes the provision of anonymity-enhancing services a regulated activity. The nuance almost always dropped in reporting is that the bar is on issuance: trading and exchange of such tokens is not prohibited, so long as the business can meet its obligations while doing it. Meanwhile the country's own central bank digital currency ships a tier that requires no identification at all below modest limits. A state that will not let you issue a private token will let you hold its own money without giving your name.

## The instruments that matter

- **Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act 2024**: passed 29 July 2024, building on the 2020 act, and reported to provide that no issuer may offer privacy tokens for sale in or from within The Bahamas
- **The distinction that gets lost**: the prohibition is on issuance; exchange or trading of privacy tokens is not prohibited provided the business can do so consistently with its regulatory obligations
- **Anonymity-enhancing services are now regulated**: providing them is treated as a regulated activity rather than an unregulated one
- **Sand Dollar ships a no-identification tier**: the lowest central bank digital currency tier carries a 500 dollar holding limit and 1,500 dollar monthly transaction limit with no identification requirement and no link to a bank account

## Sources

- [Fintech laws and regulations, Bahamas](https://iclg.com/practice-areas/fintech-laws-and-regulations/bahamas)

## Related entries

- [Bermuda](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-bermuda): A travel rule with no minimum, reaching self-hosted wallets
- [Brazil](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-brazil): A named anonymity rule, and a CBDC that could not solve privacy
- [Mexico](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-mexico): Anonymity named as the reason to exclude the asset class
- [Argentina](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-argentina): Self-custody providers written out of the regime
- [British Virgin Islands](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-british-virgin-islands): Structural confidentiality kept, transactional confidentiality not
- [California](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-california): A licensing regime that arrived in July 2026