Belarus has registered its first two prospective crypto banks, marking the first practical implementation of a regulatory framework designed to combine cryptocurrency services with conventional banking and payments. The Supervisory Board of Belarus’s High-Tech Park approved the two organizations at a meeting on September 28 chaired by Prime Minister Alexander Turchin. Their names have not yet been disclosed, although officials described both as established participants in the cryptocurrency market. The registration does not mean the institutions can immediately begin operating as fully authorized crypto banks.Both organizations first become residents of the High-Tech Park and must subsequently receive accreditation from the National Bank of Belarus and be entered into its official crypto-bank register. Only after completing that second stage can they legally operate under the country’s new crypto-banking regime. Officials said the applicants have already assembled specialist teams, created the necessary IT infrastructure and undergone technical and legal audits.
New Framework Combines Crypto and Banking
Belarus created the legal category through Presidential Decree No. 19, signed by President Alexander Lukashenko on January 16. Its principal provisions entered into force on July 18 after regulators spent approximately six months developing the supporting rules. Under the decree, a crypto bank must be a joint-stock company that is both a High-Tech Park resident and included in the National Bank’s crypto-bank register. Once authorized, these institutions can combine activities involving digital tokens with banking, payment and related financial operations — creating a regulated bridge between conventional financial services and digital assets.The framework imposes dual supervision. Crypto banks must comply with rules applicable to non-bank credit and financial institutions while also following requirements established by the High-Tech Park’s Supervisory Board. Operating as a crypto bank without inclusion in the National Bank register is explicitly prohibited under Decree No. 19.
Capital and Prudential Rules Raise Entry Barrier
Belarus has also imposed significant financial requirements on prospective operators. National Bank rules establish a minimum regulatory capital requirement of 30 million Belarusian rubles for crypto banks, alongside a minimum leverage ratio of 7%. Institutions authorized to place attracted funds on terms involving repayment, maturity and interest face a higher 60 million-ruble capital requirement and a minimum 3% leverage ratio. Crypto banks must additionally place 10 million Belarusian rubles in a conditional irrevocable deposit with the National Bank within 10 working days after being entered into the register.The regulator has created separate prudential treatment for corporate tokens, tokenized assets, stable cryptocurrencies and other digital tokens, including limits designed to control foreign-exchange and token-related risks. The framework represents a further development of Belarus’s long-running effort to create a legally defined cryptocurrency industry around the High-Tech Park. The September 28 approvals are therefore significant, but they remain an intermediate regulatory step. The two unnamed companies are the first organizations approved to progress through Belarus’s new crypto-bank framework. They will legally become crypto banks only once the National Bank completes accreditation and adds them to its register.If that process is completed, Belarus will have institutions explicitly permitted to combine regulated banking and payment functions with digital-token services under a single legal structure — a model that goes further than simply licensing conventional cryptocurrency exchanges.