Detailed overview
Argentina: Virtual Asset Service Provider Registration and CNV Supervision
Regulators
Argentina鈥檚 virtual-asset framework is administered principally by the Comisi贸n Nacional de Valores for virtual asset service provider registration and operating rules. The Unidad de Informaci贸n Financiera administers AML, CFT and CPF obligations for PSAVs. The Banco Central de la Rep煤blica Argentina regulates banks and payment service providers and imposes separate restrictions on their facilitation of unauthorized digital-asset operations. ARCA administers separate tax and information-reporting rules.
Legal framework
Argentina regulates virtual asset service providers under Law No. 27,739 and CNV General Resolution No. 1058/2025. Law No. 27,739 created the statutory PSAV framework and gave the CNV responsibility for the PSAV register, with regulatory, supervisory, inspection, oversight and sanctioning powers. CNV Resolution 1058/2025 is the current detailed PSAV regulation.
The regime should be treated as an active registration and operating regime. It is not merely a passive AML registration requirement. Registered PSAVs must comply with CNV rules on governance, minimum net worth, custody, client-asset segregation, cyber security, disclosures, conduct, advertising, reporting, recordkeeping and sanctions.
Virtual assets
A virtual asset is a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded or transferred and used for payments or investments. National legal tender and foreign fiduciary currency are excluded from the definition.
PSAV activities
A person or entity is a PSAV where it performs, as a business, one or more covered activities for or on behalf of another person.
Covered activities include exchange between virtual assets and fiat currency, exchange between one or more virtual assets, transfer of virtual assets, custody or administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets, and participation in or provision of financial services related to an issuer鈥檚 offer or sale of virtual assets.
CNV Resolution 1058/2025 divides PSAV activities into five categories.
Category 1 covers exchange between virtual assets and fiat currency.
Category 2 covers exchange between virtual assets.
Category 3 covers transfer of virtual assets.
Category 4 covers custody, administration or instruments enabling control over virtual assets.
Category 5 covers participation in and provision of financial services related to an issuer鈥檚 offer or sale of virtual assets, including platforms or applications that conduct an initial offer or public fundraising of virtual assets.
Natural persons may register only for Category 1 and Category 2.
Activities outside the PSAV perimeter
Certain activities are excluded from PSAV treatment.
A person acting for itself and on its own account in exchange between virtual assets and fiat currency, or between virtual assets, is not treated as a PSAV.
A merchant that receives or delivers virtual assets only as payment for goods or services is not treated as a PSAV merely for that reason.
A decentralized protocol with no identifiable service provider is not treated as a PSAV.
A provider that exclusively offers self-custody wallets is not treated as a PSAV.
The mere issuance of a virtual asset by the issuer is not, by itself, Category 5 activity. However, financial services relating to another person鈥檚 offer or sale of virtual assets, including an initial offer or public fundraising platform, may be Category 5 activity.
These exclusions are fact-sensitive. Custody, private-key control, brokerage, exchange, transfer execution, order routing, fiat rails, token-sale support or identifiable platform operation can bring a business back into the PSAV perimeter.
Registration and foreign nexus
Argentine-resident natural persons and Argentine companies that perform PSAV activities must register with the CNV before beginning those activities.
Foreign legal persons that directly perform PSAV activities must register before operating where Argentina contact points exist. A foreign legal person may be treated as operating in Argentina where it uses an .ar domain, enters arrangements with third parties or related entities that allow local receipt of funds or assets from Argentine residents, is clearly directed to Argentine residents, advertises clearly to Argentine residents other than by reverse solicitation, or has Argentina business volume exceeding 20% of its total PSAV activity.
A foreign legal person must establish a local legal presence. It must either register a branch, seat or permanent representation in Argentina or participate through an Argentine company registered for that purpose.
A natural person whose aggregate PSAV activity does not exceed 35,000 UVAs per month is exempt from the CNV registration requirement. The value is measured on the last day of the relevant month.
Minimum net worth
CNV Resolution 1058/2025 imposes category-based minimum net-worth requirements.
Categories 1, 2 and 4 require minimum net worth of USD 150,000.
Category 3 requires minimum net worth of USD 75,000.
Category 5 requires minimum net worth of USD 35,000.
For Categories 1 to 4, where the amount transacted or custodied during the previous twelve months is below USD 2.5 million, the minimum net-worth requirement is reduced by half. Where a PSAV performs multiple categories, the highest applicable minimum applies.
Registration dossier
Legal-person registration requires corporate, tax, governance, technology and compliance information. The applicant must provide information on legal form, registration, tax identifiers, corporate object, headquarters, local telephone number, website with an .ar domain, management and supervisory bodies, responsible personnel, regulatory compliance and internal-control functions, AIF registration, minimum net worth, administrative organization, IT expert report, custody arrangements and third-party technology or service providers.
CNV may require additional information. Information filed with CNV must remain true, complete and updated.
Governance, systems and reporting
A PSAV must maintain manuals and procedures for its activities. It must preserve transaction records including the date and time of the order, quantity, asset type, internal transaction identifier or blockchain hash, and client identification.
A PSAV must maintain systems that support immutability, security, backups and contingency planning. Cyber-security procedures must be risk-based and must address governance, identification, protection, detection, response and recovery.
Information-security policies must be approved by the board or local representatives. They must address private keys, wallet access, access revocation, wallet technology and operational security.
A PSAV must obtain an annual systems audit. It must also appoint and maintain regulatory compliance and internal-control functions.
Monthly reporting through CNV鈥檚 AIF system is required. Reported information includes client count, operation volume in USD, the top virtual assets by operation volume and custody quantities. Annual reporting includes systems audit and compliance or internal-control reports.
Custody and client assets
Custodial PSAVs must disclose whether custody is performed directly or delegated. They must disclose blockchain or DLT infrastructure, wallet addresses, wallet types, and control technologies such as cold wallets, warm wallets, hot wallets, multisignature or MPC.
Custodial PSAVs must publish proof of reserves on their website or application.
Client virtual assets must be segregated from the PSAV鈥檚 own virtual assets through clear, individualized and updated internal records and accounts or wallets. Client virtual assets are not assets of the PSAV and do not form part of its net worth. They must be accounted for off balance sheet.
Client contracts must clearly state the legal and operational deposit modality. Delegated custody must use an exclusive wallet segregated from the provider鈥檚 own assets.
Client fiat funds must be segregated from the PSAV鈥檚 own funds. Fiat accounts must be maintained with BCRA-authorized Argentine financial institutions, eligible foreign financial institutions subject to appropriate supervision, or BCRA-registered payment service providers where not prohibited.
A PSAV may not use client virtual assets or client funds for its own account. It must act according to client instructions.
Conduct, advertising and disclosures
A PSAV must act honestly, impartially, professionally, diligently and loyally. It must provide clear and non-misleading information, manage conflicts of interest, avoid abusive fees, protect client assets, maintain secure systems and maintain financial-crime prevention systems.
A PSAV may not offer services, tools or mechanisms designed to hinder identification of the origin or destination of funds or the reporting of suspicious activity.
A PSAV must maintain a Code of Conduct and anti-manipulation measures. It must also maintain electronic ledgers of operations, monitor operations continuously, provide customer support and complaints channels, and maintain transparent commission, price and cost policies.
Risk disclosures must address volatility and loss, regulatory changes, execution timing, fraud, cyber risk, technology outages, key loss and network congestion.
A PSAV may offer only virtual assets for which general information in a white paper or equivalent is available on the website or application in Spanish, the relevant national language, or English. Assets launched less than 90 days before offering require a special warning or separate section.
CNV may order modification or suspension of advertising. Unregistered persons may not use names or communications implying PSAV status.
AML and travel-rule obligations
PSAVs are AML-obliged subjects before the UIF.
A PSAV must implement an AML, CFT and CPF prevention system with a risk-based approach. It must consider customer, product and service, channel and geographic risk factors. It must prepare an annual technical risk self-assessment and submit it to the UIF and CNV before 30 April each year.
A PSAV must maintain customer due diligence, beneficial-owner controls, sanctions and terrorism-list screening, politically exposed person procedures, source-of-funds and source-of-wealth controls, continuous monitoring, risk segmentation, high-risk customer approval procedures, suspicious-operation reporting, internal and external audit, staff training, record retention and compliance officers.
Suspicious money-laundering reports must be filed within 24 hours after the PSAV concludes that the operation is suspicious, with a maximum of 90 calendar days after the operation. Terrorism-financing and proliferation-financing reports must be filed within 24 hours from the operation or attempted operation.
PSAVs must identify originators and beneficiaries of virtual-asset transfers according to FATF standards and the modality established by the UIF for exchange and validation of that information.
Systematic reporting is also required. PSAVs must report all virtual-asset operations equal to or above six minimum, vital and mobile wages and must report client registrations and cancellations. Monthly systematic reports are filed between the first and fifteenth day of the following month. The annual systematic report is filed between 2 January and 15 March.
Records must be retained for at least ten years.
UIF registration
UIF registration is separate from CNV registration.
PSAVs must register as UIF-obliged subjects and maintain current registration information. UIF Resolution 37/2026 requires supporting documentation to be uploaded through the SRO+ system or other authorized channel. If documentation is observed, the subject must cure the issue within 15 business days. Failure to cure blocks registration.
Contact information must be kept current. Replacement or absence of compliance officers must be communicated within five business days.
Banks and payment service providers
BCRA rules affect fiat rails and payment integrations.
Financial institutions may not carry out or facilitate client operations with digital assets, including cryptoassets and assets whose returns are determined by cryptoassets or other digital assets, where those assets are not authorized by a competent national regulator or by BCRA.
Payment service providers offering payment accounts are subject to an equivalent restriction.
A PSAV that uses Argentine banks, payment service providers, CVU accounts, cards, merchant settlement or other regulated fiat rails must check BCRA compatibility for the specific asset and service.
Securities tokens and tokenisation
PSAV registration does not authorize public offerings of securities tokens.
CNV Resolution 1058/2025 prohibits PSAVs from offering or intermediating public offerings of virtual assets that are negotiable securities under Law No. 26,831 unless CNV authorization exists.
A tokenised share, bond, trust security, fund unit, CEDEAR, investment contract, asset-backed security or other capital-markets instrument requires separate CNV analysis.
CNV Resolution 1081/2025 created a tokenisation sandbox for certain public-offering securities. Under that regime, certain securities may be represented digitally with prior CNV authorization and traded through participating PSAV platforms. The digital representation is not a new security; it is a representation of the underlying security.
The tokenisation sandbox is valid until 21 August 2026 unless CNV extends or modifies it.
CNV Resolution 1137/2026 opened a participatory rulemaking process for automatic-offer tokenisation and possible sandbox extension to 31 December 2027. As of 8 May 2026, that process was a consultation and not a final substantive extension.
Tax and information reporting
ARCA information reporting is separate from CNV registration and UIF compliance.
ARCA/AFIP General Resolution 4614/2019, as updated, applies to subjects that administer, manage, control or process movements of assets through electronic or digital platforms, including payment service providers offering payment accounts.
The reporting regime covers accounts, monthly income, expenses, balances and movements. Foreign currency, digital currency and cryptocurrency values must be converted to legal tender for reporting purposes under the applicable rules.
A PSAV, wallet provider, platform or PSP-integrated exchange should assess ARCA reporting separately from CNV, UIF and BCRA obligations.
Fees and transition
Registered PSAVs are subject to CNV annual fiscalization and control fees. CNV RG 1103/2026 includes PSAVs registered at 31 December each year in the annual fee framework. The 2026 amounts are set by Ministry of Economy Resolution 1/2026 and implemented through CNV fee rules.
The transitional deadlines under CNV RG 1058/2025 have passed. Existing PSAVs that were already registered under the earlier regime had staged filing deadlines in 2025. As of 8 May 2026, Argentina-facing PSAVs should treat CNV registration, CNV operating compliance, UIF registration and AML controls as active requirements.
Regulatory outlook
Argentina has moved from initial PSAV registration to a more complete operating regime. The current framework combines CNV registration and supervision, CNV operating standards, UIF AML/CFT/CPF obligations, BCRA restrictions for banks and payment service providers, CNV securities-token rules and ARCA reporting.
New entrants should treat Argentina as a regulated PSAV jurisdiction. Existing providers should confirm registration category, local nexus, foreign-provider structure, minimum net worth, custody segregation, proof of reserves, cyber-security controls, UIF registration, travel-rule data handling, BCRA rail compatibility, token-classification status and ARCA reporting.