The small island country of Nauru has passed a new law to create a special authority that will regulate cryptocurrency, digital banking, and Web3 projects. The goal is to make Nauru a hub for crypto businesses.
Nauru is a tiny country in the western Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It’s part of Micronesia, covers just 21 square kilometers, and has a population of about 12,500 people. It’s the third-smallest country in the world and the smallest island nation.
The new law creates the Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority (CRVAA). This group will be in charge of issuing licenses to crypto companies so they can legally run their businesses from Nauru, the government said on Tuesday.
Many crypto-related activities, like running crypto exchanges, launching new coins (ICOs), selling NFTs, crypto lending, staking, yield farming, and other DeFi services—will now need approval from the CRVAA.
The CRVAA will also be in charge of checking and approving stablecoins, international crypto payments, and digital banks.
Anecdote time: Bankman-Fried’s brother once wanted to buy Nauru
The brother of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried once had plans to buy Nauru and build a doomsday bunker.
The scheme was revealed in a memo during a July 2023 lawsuit detailing Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, Gabriel, and an unnamed FTX Foundation executive’s plot to buy the island using funds from the now-defunct crypto exchange.