The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ministry of Digital Economy have begun work on a regulatory framework for virtual assets, marking a sharp pivot from years of cautionary warnings against cryptocurrencies, EconomyNext reported on Tuesday.
The two bodies held a joint awareness session on Monday for top officials from the Central Bank, the Colombo Stock Exchange and the Ministry of Digital Economy. The briefing covered the reality of the local market, global regulatory precedents, and the risk-management and compliance frameworks emerging around virtual asset oversight, the ministry said in a statement.
The session also walked officials through how virtual assets are created, traded, stored and used across sectors. Topics included investment products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and self-custody holdings, the use of digital tokens for efficient cross-border payments and remittances, the tokenisation of physical assets, and capital-raising by startups through token issuances.
The move reverses the public posture Sri Lanka has held for years. The Central Bank repeatedly warned the public against using cryptocurrencies, stressing they were not legal tender and citing fraud risk, extreme volatility, and exposure to money-laundering and terrorist-financing vulnerabilities. The new initiative builds instead on a structured regulatory path, the government said.
EconomyNext framed the shift as driven by two pressures. Regional hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong have institutionalised digital asset frameworks and attracted Asia-Pacific exchange activity, while Sri Lankan users have leaned increasingly on peer-to-peer channels and offshore platforms — activity that today sits entirely outside the regulatory perimeter.
The joint SEC–MoDE workstream is also a signal of the newly established Ministry of Digital Economy’s expanding policy footprint. The ministry — already shepherding the Public Service Person System digital ID rollout, the remote public services guidelines, and the reorganisation of ICTA into a Digital Economy Authority — is now leading on financial-asset regulation in coordination with the SEC.
The ministry did not publish a target date for a draft virtual-assets law or a comprehensive regulatory roadmap. Officials said the work would proceed in consultation with the CBSL and the CSE.
Source: EconomyNext — Sri Lanka’s SEC, MoDE join hands to explore, regulate virtual assets.
