# British Virgin Islands

> British Virgin Islands (BVI Financial Services Commission · Information Commissioner): Structural confidentiality kept, transactional confidentiality not. Region: Americas. Confidential with disclosure: Confidentiality is workable so long as the regulated firm can identify the parties and disclose on demand. Encrypted amounts are not the thing being restricted.

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: Structural confidentiality kept, transactional confidentiality not
- Authority: BVI Financial Services Commission · Information Commissioner
- Stance on on-chain confidentiality: Confidential with disclosure. Confidentiality is workable so long as the regulated firm can identify the parties and disclose on demand. Encrypted amounts are not the thing being restricted.
- Tags: travel rule USD 1,000, non-public ownership register, AEOI from 2025, no anonymity position
- Canonical page: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-british-virgin-islands

## What it actually says

The British Virgin Islands is a useful illustration that confidentiality is not one thing. At the level of corporate structure it deliberately preserves it: beneficial ownership information is filed with the regulator but not publicly disclosed, which is a policy choice other jurisdictions have abandoned under pressure. At the level of transactions it does the opposite, applying a travel rule from a thousand dollars and extending automatic exchange of information to crypto businesses. We located no position either way on anonymity-enhancing assets. So the entity behind a structure can stay out of public view while its transfers are reported, which is close to the inverse of how a public blockchain behaves.

## The instruments that matter

- **Virtual Assets Service Providers Act, 2022, in force 1 February 2023**: with the anti-money-laundering regulations of 2020 as amended in 2024 and the associated code of practice
- **Travel rule from USD 1,000**: providers must transmit sender and recipient data, retain transfer records and apply enhanced due diligence for high-risk jurisdictions
- **Beneficial ownership filed but not public**: ownership data goes to the regulator without public disclosure, which is a deliberate entity-level confidentiality choice paired with regulator-level transparency
- **Automatic exchange of information extended to crypto from 2025**: a direct counterweight to that structural confidentiality

## Sources

- [BVI crypto-asset regulation](https://www.walkersglobal.com/en/Insights/2025/08/British-Virgin-Islands-Crypto-asset-regulation)

## Related entries

- [Cayman Islands](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-cayman-islands): A mature regime that never addresses confidentiality
- [Argentina](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-argentina): Self-custody providers written out of the regime
- [California](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-california): A licensing regime that arrived in July 2026
- [Canada](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-canada): Delistings without a rule that names the assets
- [United States](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-united-states): Split by perimeter, not by ideology
- [Bahamas](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-bahamas): Issuance of privacy tokens barred, trading not