Chile Crypto Regulation: the Fintech Law and the CMF

A company in Chile that starts paying suppliers, collecting from clients, or holding part of its treasury in crypto assets quickly runs into three separate agencies, each with its own statute: the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF), the Unidad de Análisis Financiero (UAF), and the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII). None of the three covers the full picture alone, and treating them as interchangeable is the most common compliance mistake.

In Soulbit Academy we break down what each Chilean agency actually requires of a company operating with crypto assets, with the exact statute and the date it took effect. For the operational side of paying an international supplier in USDC from Chile, with local peso funding and cash-out handled by the company itself, see our B2B treasury guide. This article covers the regulatory map: which law, which registry, and which filings apply before you operate.

What Chile's Fintech Law is and why it covers crypto assets

Chile's Fintech Law is Law 21.521, published in the Official Gazette on January 4, 2023, and it is the statute that sets the general framework for technology-based financial services in the country. Its full official name translates to "Promoting competition and financial inclusion through innovation and technology in the provision of financial services."

The law defines "virtual financial assets or crypto assets" as the digital representation of units of value, goods, or services, excluding money, that can be transferred, stored, or exchanged digitally. Under that definition, it places six categories of providers under CMF oversight: crowdfunding platforms, alternative transaction systems (the category that captures crypto), credit advisors, investment advisors, financial instrument custodians, and order routers.

Why does a law built for crowdfunding and financial advice end up regulating crypto assets too?

The legislature chose a functional test rather than a list of named technologies: any platform that intermediates, custodies, or trades financial assets through digital means falls inside the scope, regardless of whether the underlying asset is a stock, a derivative, or a crypto asset. That is why the Fintech Law, not a crypto-specific statute, is the regulatory entry point in Chile today. The full text is available from the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional.

What the CMF registry is and who must enroll to operate with crypto assets

The Registro de Prestadores de Servicios Financieros (RPSF) is the CMF's mandatory registry that the Fintech Law requires before offering any of the six regulated services, including crypto intermediation as an alternative transaction system. The CMF spelled out the operational detail in General Rule No. 502 (NCG 502), issued in January 2024, setting registration and authorization requirements plus the ongoing obligations of each provider category.

NCG 502 requires each provider to prove its legal incorporation, controllers, and ultimate beneficial owners, along with its internal risk management policies and operating procedures, before receiving authorization. A platform that intermediates crypto trades between third parties, or that custodies client crypto assets, falls under the alternative transaction system or the financial instrument custodian category, depending on the service it provides.

Agency	Key statute	What it requires from a company
CMF	Law 21.521 and NCG 502 (2024)	Prior registration and authorization to provide technology-based financial services, including crypto intermediation
UAF	Law 19.913	Anti-money-laundering duties: customer identification and suspicious activity reporting
SII	Income Tax Law and Resoluciones Exentas 113 and 114 (2025)	Taxation of crypto asset gains and annual sworn declarations for providers

A company that only holds stablecoin balances as part of its own treasury, without intermediating transactions for third parties, does not automatically fall into any of the six categories covered by NCG 502. The CMF's test is the service provided to others, not the asset held.

What anti-money-laundering duties the UAF imposes

The Unidad de Análisis Financiero (UAF), created by Law 19.913, requires obligated subjects to report suspicious activity tied to money laundering and terrorism financing, and to run customer due diligence procedures. Providers registered with the CMF as an alternative transaction system, the category covering crypto exchanges, fall within that group of obligated subjects under the Fintech Law.

In practice, a registered exchange must identify each customer before operating (a process equivalent to KYB for legal entities), monitor account behavior, and file a Suspicious Activity Report (ROS) with the UAF when it detects red flags, without notifying the customer. The full text of Law 19.913 is available from the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional. These domestic duties sit alongside international standards such as the FATF Travel Rule, which requires providers to exchange originator and beneficiary data on every transfer.

What happens if a registered platform fails to report a suspicious transaction to the UAF?

It exposes itself to administrative sanctions under Law 19.913 and to a CMF review of its fitness as a registered provider. For a company that is simply a client of such a platform, the relevant step is confirming the provider is actually listed in the CMF registry before operating at volume.

What the SII requires: income tax and the new crypto sworn declarations

The Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII) requires that gains from buying and selling crypto assets be taxed as income, under the same general rules of the Income Tax Law that apply to any other capital gain. Individuals declare the taxable base under article 17 No. 8 letter m), subject to the Impuesto Global Complementario or Adicional; companies apply article 20 No. 5, with Impuesto de Primera Categoría followed by the same personal-level tax.

That general duty was joined, in 2025, by a specific reporting mechanism for crypto asset service providers. Resoluciones Exentas SII No. 113 and No. 114, both dated August 26, 2025, created annual sworn declarations 1963 and 1964: the first identifies users with foreign tax residence, the second identifies users resident or domiciled in Chile, together with their relevant transactions. The resolution creating declaration 1964 is available on the SII's official site.

Those two declarations are, in practice, Chile's domestic vehicle for implementing the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), the international standard that collects crypto transaction data during 2026 for automatic exchange between countries starting in 2027. Chile signed the CARF Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CARF-MCAA) on October 21, 2025, and declarations 1963 and 1964 are how the SII gathers the data that later feeds that exchange. The mechanism mirrors, in logic, DIAN's Resolution 000240 in Colombia: the provider reports, and the user company does not file an extra form through that channel.

Does a Chilean company have to file declaration 1963 or 1964 itself?

Not directly. Those declarations are filed by the crypto asset service provider with the SII, not by the company using the service. What the company must do is declare its own capital gains in its annual income tax return, consistent with what its provider likely already reported, since any mismatch between the two falls on the company to explain.

Regulatory timeline: from Chile's Fintech Law to the OECD's CARF

Chile's crypto regulatory timeline has six concrete milestones between 2023 and 2027, from the Fintech Law's publication to the first international CARF data exchange. Seeing them in order clarifies which duty is already live and which has not yet produced its first practical effect.

Milestone	Date
Publication of Law 21.521 (Fintech Law)	January 4, 2023
CMF's NCG 502: registration, authorization, and obligations	January 2024
SII Resoluciones Exentas No. 113 and No. 114: sworn declarations 1963 and 1964	August 26, 2025
Chile signs the CARF-MCAA	October 21, 2025
Providers collect crypto transaction data	throughout 2026
First automatic CARF data exchange between countries	2027

Chile signed the CARF-MCAA nearly a year after Colombia and Brazil, but that does not delay its data calendar: every first-wave signatory shares the same 2026 collection window and the same 2027 first exchange.

What a company operating with crypto assets in Chile should do now

A Chilean company already using or planning to use crypto assets should run three concrete checks before operating at volume: confirm whether its provider is listed in the CMF registry, review whether its own business model turns it into a UAF obligated subject, and keep its own transaction records organized for the SII income tax return.

The first check is straightforward: the CMF publishes its provider registry, and any platform intermediating crypto for third parties should appear there. The second depends on the business model: a company that only receives payments from its own customers in USDC is not providing a regulated financial service to third parties. The third is preventive: a company's own record, by date, counterparty, and dollar value, supports its tax filing if the provider reports a different figure.

What if my company only pays foreign suppliers in USDC, without offering any crypto service to third parties?

A company that only pays or collects in USDC, without offering crypto services to third parties, is a client of a crypto asset service provider, not the provider itself, and the CMF registration and UAF reporting duties sit with the provider, not the company. The tax duty toward the SII is different: the company must still declare any gain or exchange-rate result from those transactions under the general Income Tax Law rules.

None of these checks replace the judgment of a Chilean lawyer or accountant, since applying this framework to a specific company depends on details this article cannot cover generically.

What Soulbit delivers in Chile today, and what it does not

Soulbit offers institutional custody with MPC technology over stablecoin balances such as USDC and USDT, conversion to fiat in USD, EUR, and GBP, mass payroll disbursement, payment links and a collection QR code, and RFQ-based OTC conversion on request. Every transaction runs through KYB and AML/KYT monitoring, generating a traceable record of date, amount, and counterparty that is useful for a company's own documentation in front of the SII.

What Soulbit does not do in Chile is run a local bank rail in Chilean pesos: that rail exists today only in Colombia, and in Chile the peso funding and cash-out legs stay with the company, through its own bank or exchange house, as detailed in the guide to paying suppliers in USDC from Chile. Soulbit also does not publicly determine whether it acts as a reporting provider under CARF in Chile, nor does it prepare or file tax returns on behalf of clients; that classification and that filing belong to each company's compliance team and tax advisor. For a broader country overview, see the Chile crypto payments guide; for regional context, the Latin America crypto regulation landscape places Chile alongside the other frameworks already in force in the region.