El Salvador Doubles Down on Crypto—Sends Delegation to SEC for Pilot Program Talks
El Salvador’s Bitcoin bet just got more interesting. Fresh off becoming the first nation to adopt BTC as legal tender, its officials are now knocking on the SEC’s door—presumably with a stack of regulatory headache relief pills in hand.
Why it matters: This isn’t just about Bitcoin beach parties anymore. The Central American pioneer is pushing for institutional legitimacy, and Wall Street’s favorite gatekeepers are being forced to listen.
The cynical take: Nothing warms the SEC’s heart like a developing nation asking permission to innovate—right after the US spent a decade watching from the sidelines as crypto ate its lunch.
The Sandbox
The sandbox is expected to feature two major pilot programs: real estate tokenization and small business fundraising. For real estate tokenization, an American-certified brokerage firm will collaborate with a tokenization firm in El Salvador to create property-backed digital asset projects.
The second pilot program would centre around a small business in El Salvador securing funding by issuing tokenized shares, in partnership with American-authorized broker-dealers.
If approved, the sandbox project would generate practical data that the SEC could use to decide on custody solutions and token classification. The SEC could also rely on this data to evaluate how digital assets fit within U.S. regulatory structures while potentially avoiding classification as traditional securities.
Carmen Elena Ochoa de Medina of VLRM Markets believes her organization is focused on transforming the digital asset ecosystem and promoting the global adoption of digital asset tokenization.
Following his swearing-in on April 21, 2025, SEC Chair Paul Atkins emphasized his aim to establish a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets. He stated that one of his top priorities would be to provide a rational, coherent, and principled approach to digital asset regulation, making sure that the United States remains the best and most secure place in the world to invest and conduct business in this space.
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