Stablecoins for Companies in Paraguay: Legal Framework

A software company in Asuncion billing US clients in dollars, or a Miami-based buyer paying a Paraguayan supplier, runs into the same question once someone proposes settling in USDC: is that legal, who supervises it, and what new obligation does it create. In Paraguay, the answer has been an incomplete patchwork for years, and 2026 added one more piece to it, though not the one most people expected.

At Soulbit Academy we explain the framework without dressing it up. Paraguay has no dedicated crypto-asset market law, unlike other countries in the region. What it has had since 2020 is an anti-money-laundering regime that reaches whoever provides services on those assets, and since March 2026 a tax reporting duty that affects any company operating above a certain threshold. Soulbit is a payment and treasury rail for stablecoins built for companies, not a bank or a law firm, and by the end of this article you will know precisely what it covers in this market and what it does not.

Stablecoins for companies in Paraguay: what the rules say today

Paraguay regulates virtual assets through anti-money-laundering and tax rules, not through a dedicated market law. A bill that would have comprehensively regulated crypto mining, trading, intermediation, exchange, transfer, custody and administration of crypto-assets passed the Senate in 2022 after more than a year of legislative work. The Executive vetoed it through Decree 7,692/22, dated August 29, 2022, arguing chiefly that crypto mining is energy-intensive and would compete unfairly for electricity with manufacturing. The Senate rejected that veto, but the Chamber of Deputies did not follow, and the bill was archived without becoming law.

That gap in market legislation sits alongside an anti-money-laundering regime in force since 2020. SEPRELAD, Paraguay's financial intelligence unit, designated virtual asset service providers as obligated parties under Resolution No. 8/2020, issued under Law No. 1,015/97 as amended by laws 3,783/09 and 6,497/19. The rule does not authorize an exchange business or supervise it as a financial activity: it requires whoever provides those services to register, apply controls and report. The full regional picture, including countries that already have a dedicated crypto-asset market law, is covered in the regulatory landscape for crypto-assets in Latin America.

Who supervises: the BCP, SEPRELAD and the DNIT

Three institutions share the ground in Paraguay, and none of them issues an exchange license. The Banco Central del Paraguay (BCP) issues the guarani and sets monetary and exchange policy; since Law No. 7,572/2025 on the Securities and Products Market, it is also the enforcement authority behind the Superintendencia de Valores, which began regulating securities issued through distributed ledger technology, a different track from day-to-day stablecoin payments. SEPRELAD is the anti-money-laundering unit that receives registrations and reports from obligated parties, including virtual asset service providers. The Dirección Nacional de Ingresos Tributarios (DNIT) is the tax authority and, since 2026, requires a specific informative return on crypto-asset transactions.

What does the Banco Central del Paraguay say about companies using crypto-assets?

That they are high-risk instruments backed by no monetary authority. The BCP has publicly stated that crypto-assets lack a centralized registry and are hard to control, with exposure to money laundering absent adequate controls. For a company dealing with Paraguay, the practical reading is that it can agree with its counterparties to settle transactions in stablecoins, but that does not replace or turn the guarani into a secondary currency, and the transaction deserves the same documentation rigor as any other commercial deal.

Paraguay's foreign exchange regime: what Law 489 and the free exchange market allow

Article 50 of Law No. 489/95, the Organic Law of the Banco Central del Paraguay, establishes the Mercado Libre de Cambios: it operates with foreign currency and instruments tied to imports, exports of goods and services, and capital movements, with no prior Central Bank authorization required, except for specific prohibitions set by law or a substantiated Executive order. Law No. 6,104/18 amended and expanded that organic law without altering the free exchange principle. The BCP intervenes in that market to keep it functioning normally, competitively and in balance, respecting underlying supply and demand for foreign currency.

That regime makes Paraguay one of the more open foreign exchange markets in the region: there is no exchange control, the guarani is freely convertible, and no Central Bank authorization is needed to remit income or capital abroad. That legal basis explains why the dollar circulates so naturally in Paraguayan foreign trade, especially around Ciudad del Este, where a significant share of commerce is invoiced and settled in foreign currency. Stablecoins such as USDC and USDT are not part of the Mercado Libre de Cambios or of any regime dedicated to digital assets: their use between companies rests on the general contractual freedom that same framework allows.

What changes in the day-to-day operations of a company working with Paraguay

What changes day to day is the collection and payment cycle facing a Paraguayan client or supplier that today depends on an international wire transfer. USDC is a digital dollar issued by Circle, backed by cash reserves and US Treasury bonds; USDT is the one issued by Tether. Those are the two stablecoins Soulbit's V1 supports. With a USDC collection, the company shares a payment link or a QR code tied to the invoice, the client pays, and the transaction settles in minutes, without the chain of correspondent banks that slows down a traditional international transfer.

Operation	Traditional banking route with Paraguay	Stablecoin route
Collecting from a Paraguayan client	International transfer, 1 to 5 business days	Payment link or QR, settlement in minutes
Paying a Paraguayan supplier	Bank order through a correspondent chain	Transfer from the stablecoin balance
Paying contractors across countries	One transfer per person	Batch payment from a single balance
Holding dollar-denominated treasury	Dollar account subject to local banking	USDC or USDT balance under institutional custody
Converting to guaranies	Conversion through the Mercado Libre de Cambios	The company resolves it with its own bank: no local rail in the V1
Traceability of each movement	Delayed bank statement	On-chain identifier verifiable instantly

Compliance: SEPRELAD, the virtual asset service provider status, and the new DNIT return

Paraguay's anti-money-laundering framework draws a clear line between using the asset and providing the regulated service. SEPRELAD Resolution No. 8/2020 designates as an obligated party, under the virtual asset service provider (PSAV) category, whoever habitually carries out mining or its equivalent, exchange, transfer, storage or administration of virtual assets for third parties, or provides related financial services. Resolution No. 9/2020 adds a layer: it requires obligated parties to apply enhanced due diligence when their own client is, in turn, a PSAV. Resolution No. 314/2021 is the operational regulation: it requires a comprehensive anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing program, a risk self-assessment every two years, a designated compliance officer, an anti-money-laundering manual and a code of ethics. These rules apply to individuals and entities established or domiciled in Paraguay.

Does a company that collects in USDC become a PSAV required to register with SEPRELAD?

In principle, no, and this is the most important distinction in this article. The resolutions target whoever provides the service habitually and professionally for third parties, not whoever simply uses it to collect its own invoices and pay its own team. It is the same difference as holding an account versus being the provider that administers it. That said, the classification depends on the specific facts of each operation and should be confirmed with Paraguayan legal counsel before scaling it, especially if the company were ever to handle third-party funds.

A new tax duty was added to that anti-money-laundering layer in 2026. The DNIT established, through General Resolution No. 47/2026, dated March 11, 2026, an informative crypto-asset return for resident individuals or entities exceeding US$5,000 a year in virtual asset transactions, including transactions carried out on foreign platforms. The return is filed through the Marangatu system and covers transaction type, date and time, amount traded, a unique transaction identifier, origin and destination addresses, and wallet type. The first filing corresponds to fiscal year 2026 and is due in March 2027; the fine for a late filing is 1,000,000 guaranies. The resolution does not create a new tax on crypto-assets: it is an informative duty. Transactions are also subject to the origin-and-destination monitoring required by the FATF travel rule, and before operating on any platform it is worth having KYB resolved, the process that validates the company, its line of business and its beneficial owners.

What Soulbit's V1 delivers in Paraguay and what it does not

Soulbit's V1 has a concrete limit worth stating upfront when it comes to Paraguay: there is no local banking rail.

Need for a company working with Paraguay	Covered by the V1?	How it is resolved
Collecting from abroad in USDC or USDT	Yes	Payment links and QR codes tied to each invoice
Holding digital dollar treasury	Yes	Business account under institutional custody
Paying payroll or suppliers across countries	Yes	Recurring and batch payroll
Converting to fiat	Yes, in USD, EUR and GBP	Quote-based conversion on request
Deposit in guaranies	No	The only local banking rail in the V1 is Colombia
Cards, yield, a proprietary token or a native app	No	Outside the scope of the V1

The honest reading is that the V1 covers the dollar layer of doing business with Paraguay, useful for anyone collecting from or paying into the country, and does not cover the guarani layer, which still depends entirely on each company's local bank. The same limitation exists today with Uruguay, whose framework we cover in stablecoins for companies in Uruguay: neither country yet has a local banking rail in the V1, even though each regulates the asset differently.

Where to start

Three steps order the decision without committing to anything. First, review with Paraguayan legal counsel whether the planned operation fits the use of the asset or edges toward providing a PSAV service, especially if the company would ever handle third-party funds. Second, prepare the corporate documentation for KYB before it is needed, and estimate whether the expected annual volume crosses the US$5,000 threshold that triggers the DNIT return. Third, choose a limited pilot: one overseas counterparty, one invoice, one full collection-and-reconciliation cycle. Country-specific operating details are in the Paraguay crypto payments guide.

The pilot is worth measuring with concrete criteria, not impressions. How long the collection took once the client approved the invoice. How much was deducted along the way. How many minutes it took to reconcile the transaction against its identifier. And whether the accountant could assemble the file for a potential DNIT return without asking for extra explanations. With those four data points, expanding the pilot stops being a matter of opinion and becomes a decision backed by numbers.