# Seychelles

> Seychelles (Financial Services Authority): No anonymity rule, but the offshore route is closing. Region: Middle East & Africa. Privacy with disclosure: Confidentiality is workable so long as the regulated firm can identify parties and disclose on demand.

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: Middle East & Africa
- Subject: No anonymity rule, but the offshore route is closing
- Authority: Financial Services Authority
- Stance on on-chain confidentiality: Privacy with disclosure. Confidentiality is workable so long as the regulated firm can identify parties and disclose on demand.
- Tags: offshore domicile, substance requirements, nexus test, no AEC rule
- Canonical page: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-seychelles

## What it actually says

Seychelles matters here because of how many crypto entities are domiciled in it rather than because of anything it says about confidentiality, and it says nothing. No located instrument restricts anonymity-enhancing assets. What changed is the plumbing around that silence. The 2024 Act arrived with an unusually complete set of regulations, and the regulator paired them with substance requirements and guidance on what counts as operating in or from Seychelles. That combination closes the structure anonymity-tolerant venues have historically relied on: registering in a jurisdiction with no privacy rules while serving users everywhere else. The absence of a prohibition is becoming less useful than it looks.

## The instruments that matter

- **Virtual Asset Service Providers Act 2024**: supported by licensing, advertising, cyber security, client asset safekeeping, capital, and ICO and NFT registration regulations all made in 2024
- **Substance requirements**: an FSA guidance note on substance, plus guidance interpreting what it means to operate in or from Seychelles; this is the nexus test that closes the registered-here, operating-elsewhere structure
- **Only companies may apply**: domestic companies and international business companies, never individuals
- **Circular No. 14 of 2025**: governs transitional applications, with active enforcement against unlicensed offshore platforms continuing through 2026

## Sources

- [FSA VASP legal framework](https://fsaseychelles.sc/vasp/legal-framework)

## Related entries

- [Nigeria](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-nigeria): Securities-first, with banking access restored
- [Ghana](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-ghana): The regulator that put self-custody in writing
- [Israel](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-israel): Light on-chain, heavy on data protection
- [Bahrain](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-bahrain): A listing test written against effects, not asset names
- [Kenya](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-kenya): The ban written into primary legislation, not a rulebook
- [Qatar](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/jur-qatar): Exclusion by perimeter rather than prohibition