Two Belarusian crypto banks win Hi-Tech Park registration ahead of the National Bank's registry

"Today, two crypto banks are launching their operations in our country," Anna Ryabova said ^[6]. In the same Monday announcement, the hub's press service attached a condition: full-scale operations start only once the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus has added both entities to its registry of crypto banks ^[4][7]. Ryabova credited the National Bank with extensive collaboration on the rules ^[17].

The two-step approval follows from the design. Alexander Lukashenko signed Decree No. 19 on crypto banks on January 16, 2026 ^[9]. Since then the park and the National Bank have adopted the category's requirements, a list of permitted transactions, and accounting and reporting rules ^[10]. Each bank will answer to the laws governing banks and credit institutions and, at the same time, to decisions of the park's supervisory board ^[8]. Dmitry Kalechits, deputy head of the board's secretariat, argues that the dual approach will make the financial market more efficient and widen the instruments on offer ^[11]. In the early going, I think the dual setup is more likely to give every new product two chances to be refused, because both what the banks may do and which coins they may handle are set by list ^[10][12].

Belarus has put its effort into the legal form: a new kind of entity that combines crypto operations with ordinary banking and sits inside the park's special legal regime ^[1][3]. The report does not name the two institutions, their owners or their capital, so there is no balance sheet yet to judge the form against.

The form took years. Decree No. 8 on the digital economy took effect in spring 2018 ^[13], about eight years before the first crypto banks were registered ^[1]. Belarus legalized mining and trading years ahead of Russia, which legalized them only this summer ^[14]. Crypto use in the country has grown since Western sanctions were imposed over its part in Moscow's war on Ukraine ^[15].

From here, the registry entry could follow quickly, and the two banks would begin taking business under both rulebooks. It could drag, leaving Monday's "launch" as a park announcement and nothing more. Or the entry could arrive while the fixed lists keep the product range narrow. I'd expect the first outcome, since the National Bank co-wrote the rules ^[10]. Two things would prove that wrong: no registry entry, or entries that arrive with the banks' names and capital still undisclosed.