Only two companies have been authorized to issue digital assets

The digital assets law was approved in El Salvador more than a year ago. Since then, only two companies have registered with that entity as issuers of securities. The first was eGrains, which held the first public offering of a digital asset in January for the amount of $100 million.

The second of them, which was still registered on that deserted list last week, is Nexbridge, a company that recognizes its partner companies like Bitfinex Securities on its website. The company is led by Italian Giancarlo Devasini, whose There was a company nearby. Major influence on the structure of legislation.

According to Nayib Bukele, Bitfinex is also the company that will be in charge of the platform on which the Volcano Bonus will be issued, the state asset backed by Bitcoin that was announced by President Nayib Bukele and that, according to the National Bitcoin Office, will happen this year. Will be launched in the first quarter.

One of the Nexbridge representatives, who declined to be named in the note, says it is part of a large international conglomerate that does business globally. According to the trade registry, the company was established only in August 2023, hence it meets the requirement to benefit from the primacy of the Law for the Promotion of Innovation and Technological Manufacturing approved by the Legislative Assembly in April 2023.

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This includes significant tax incentives, such as total exemption from income tax in respect of incentive activities, exemption from all types of income tax withholding, total exemption from municipal taxes on net assets declared by beneficiaries, exemption from benefit of capital payments and from payment of customs duty. Total discount.

According to the Nexbridge representative, it will be too soon when significant news will be released about the company, which it still wants to keep reserved. For now, he says the company will serve as a kind of bridge between the traditional investment market and new technologies.

“In the company we have very high-level profiles, very well-known, who come from the traditional market and who are now starting to use the benefits that technology offers,” he comments.

The Nexbridge representative was asked about the benefits that this new legislation based on digital assets represents for a company like yours. He assured that it is a bit complicated to explain because, to do so, they would have to take into account how financial markets work and another series of principles that he would expand on later.

He mentioned, yes, that one of the main advantages he sees in El Salvador and its legislation is the small bureaucracy required for this type of company to operate.

“El Salvador’s bureaucracy is very small compared to other large financial centers,” he comments. So why, then, are so few companies registered as digital asset issuers in El Salvador despite so many advantages?

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According to this executive, this is because the licensing process is long and rigorous. He claims that six months passed between his requesting it and it being given to him.

“The rules are very strict, the controls are very aggressive. This is good, because El Salvador still does not have the financial respect of other big markets, which is why it must have strong controls and very clear regulations,” he says.

He mentions existing obligations in El Salvador that, according to him, are absent in some European countries where they do business, such as presenting a financial balance sheet for each year, which is also public.

“Not easy. It’s almost more difficult than issuing a financial product in traditional markets,” says the Nexbridge executive.

Currently, the National Digital Assets Commission has only approved the release of one of these features, more than a year after its legislation was approved. This has allowed the operation of 16 digital asset service providers who can, for example, hold these securities on digital platforms or wallets.

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