TL;DR:
- Belarus signed Decree No. 19 on Jan. 16, creating a domestic legal framework for crypto banks and control over digital tokens.
- A crypto bank is a joint stock company that blends token operations with banking and must sit inside the High Tech Park and a National Bank registry.
- The regime adds dual oversight and ties the push to a broader agenda that also prioritizes crypto mining and nuclear power capacity.
Belarus has taken a step integrating digital assets into its financial system, after President Alexander Lukashenko signed Decree No. 19 on Jan. 16. Titled “On Crypto Banks and Certain Issues of Control in the Sphere of Digital Tokens,” the document introduces a legal framework for crypto banks and control over digital tokens. Reported by state agency BELTA, the decree is positioned as reinforcing Belarus as a hub for financial IT innovation while creating regulated conditions for crypto banking activity domestically. Belarus is signaling that token finance should scale under supervision, not in the shadows.
Blueprint for Crypto Banks
The decree defines a crypto bank as a joint stock company authorized to combine digital token operations with traditional banking, payment, and financial services. The model targets products that place blockchain tools alongside existing operations in one workflow. Eligibility is constrained: to operate, a crypto bank must be a resident of Belarus’s High Tech Park, a special economic zone designed to attract businesses, and it must be listed in a crypto bank registry maintained by the National Bank of Belarus. Access is being gated to keep token banking inside a controlled institutional perimeter.
Oversight is intentionally layered. BELTA says crypto banks will face a dual regulatory structure: they must comply with legislation applicable to nonbank credit and financial institutions, and they must also adhere to decisions issued by the Supervisory Board of the High Tech Park. Officials frame the setup as keeping innovation moving while holding the sector to standards comparable to those governing traditional institutions. Crypto banks may facilitate token operations while providing access to banking and payment services as intermediaries. The governance design aims to blend speed with oversight, without materially lowering the compliance bar.
The decree fits Belarus’s ambition to use the High Tech Park to attract blockchain businesses with legal and tax rules, and to move from experimentation to a structured ecosystem. Crypto banking is not the only pillar. In November, Lukashenko positioned crypto mining as a strategic path to reduce dollar dependency and announced expansion plans to use nuclear power capacity for digital asset production. A local report said he dismissed volatility concerns during a Nov. 14 meeting in Minsk. Belarus is pairing token banking with mining strategy to broaden its regulated digital finance push.
