The Dominican Republic has no regime for crypto-assets — the Central Bank has repeated that they are neither legal tender nor backed, and the 2025 Payment Systems Regulation bars payment entities from offering products or services based on virtual assets — but it has an orderly securities market and the most used trust in the Caribbean. To tokenize tourist real estate and development projects the structure exists; what does not exist is the crypto label.
The framework: SIMV, Law 249-17 and the Central Bank warnings
The Securities Market Superintendence (SIMV) supervises issuers, intermediaries and offerings under Law 249-17. Crypto-assets have no framework of their own: the Monetary Board and the Central Bank warned that they are not legal tender nor backed, and that whoever uses them bears the risk. What does exist is a restriction: Monetary Board Resolution JM 250828-02 of August 28, 2025, which fully amended the Payment Systems Regulation, defines virtual assets (art. 4) and bars payment system operators, electronic payment entities, acquirers and sub-acquirers, ATM network operators and digital wallet and payment initiation providers from offering products or services based on virtual assets (arts. 11, 17, 31, 33, 35, 37 and 39). A tokenized security, by contrast, is a security: Law 249-17 and SIMV supervision apply.
The vehicle: the Law 189-11 trust
Law 189-11 for the development of the mortgage market and the trust created an active trust industry, with authorized trustees and real estate, public-offering and guarantee trusts. It is the Dominican variant of the Latin American fideicomiso and the natural vehicle to fractionalize projects and income in tokens.
What is being tokenized
Tourist and residential real estate (Punta Cana, Santo Domingo, the north coast) — the asset that attracts the most foreign capital in the country — and development projects with pre-sales. The reading for an issuer: international small-ticket investor demand exists; the trust structure and the SIMV standard are what make it financeable.
How we work with issuers in the country
The anatomy does not change from country to country: classification of the asset, a vehicle with segregated assets, a token with transfer restrictions, verified identity on every transfer and serious custody — the seven-layer platform we build, with the local legal layer on top and a local counsel alongside. The full map of the region is in tokenization in Latin America.
Framework described as of mid-2026; regimes change — check the current status before structuring. Project in the Dominican Republic? Talk to us.