Authorisations in El Salvador, as at 21 September 2026
Authorisations
84
across 1 licence families
Licensed
84
all 84 authorisations
In the pipeline
0
No live applications
Ended
0
No ended authorisations
Authorisations by licence
CNAD digital asset service provider registration
100%
84
These 84 authorisations belong to 76 companies. The company-level records are in Atlas Pro.
What those authorisations permit
Holding assets for clients84
Moving value for clients84
One authorisation can cover several activities, so these figures overlap.
The licences: who grants them, how long, what they cost
The statutory clock is the formal decision period, where the regulator publishes one. “Observed” is the real-world timeline reported by applicants, not a figure the regulator sets. Capital is the regulatory minimum, not legal or advisory fees. Where a figure is not yet available, we show “Unavailable”; where one exists but Anvesan has not verified it, we show “Not sourced”.
The Atlas column maps a licence to a tracked licence family only where the two are the same thing. Where they are not, it reads Not mapped, and the family counts are in Authorisations by licence above.
CNAD digital asset service provider registration
84 in the Atlas
- Who grants it
- Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales (CNAD)
- What triggers it
- Held for holding assets for clients, moving value for clients, by the permissions recorded on the authorisations themselves.
- Legal basis
- Not sourced
Statutory clock
Not published
CNAD does not publish a decision period. Registration runs in two steps, a pre-registration and then a definitive registration. Anvesan has not established a statutory deadline, so we do not infer one.
What it takes in practice
3 to 6 months
End to end for a well-prepared applicant, from forming the entity through pre-registration to definitive registration.
| Minimum authorised capitalCNAD may require more after a technical analysis of the planned activities |
US$2,000 |
|---|
CNAD raises the figure case by case after a technical analysis of the activities applied for, so US$2,000 is a floor rather than a working number.
Application fee US$5,475 initial registration fee, payable within 10 days of a favourable resolution. Annual supervision US$3,650.
What to watch
Regulatory changes only: what is being decided, by whom, and when. Company-level licence changes are tracked in Atlas Pro. Reviewed 10 September 2026.
Recently landed
August 2025
In force
The Investment Banking Law opened a second route
El Salvador passed a dedicated Investment Banking Law in August 2025, creating a separate regulated pathway for institutional digital-asset banking alongside the CNAD registration on this page.
What changes An institutional business now has a choice of route. The CNAD registration remains the one this page tracks.
El Salvador Investment Banking Law, August 2025
Questions this page answers
How many companies hold a stablecoin-related licence in El Salvador?
Atlas tracks 84 authorisations across 76 companies in El Salvador, read from official registers and checked on 21 September 2026. Of those, 84 are licensed, 0 are in the pipeline, and 0 have ended.
Who regulates stablecoins in El Salvador?
Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales (CNAD).
What licence does a stablecoin business need in El Salvador?
This page lists 1 authorisation, each with the regulator that grants it and what triggers the requirement. Which one applies depends on the activity.
How long does a licence take in El Salvador, and what capital does it need?
It depends which authorisation. The licence table carries the statutory decision period where a law sets one, the timeline applicants report in practice, and the minimum capital for each. Where a regime is not yet in force, we show “Unavailable”.
How these numbers are made
- Registers read
- The official registers used for this regime, named in the Registers read line. Where a public register does not provide a record, the source is identified separately.
- Cadence
- Checked daily. Changes are recorded when they appear in the register, together with the date they were seen. Last checked 21 September 2026.
- Licence detail reviewed
- 10 September 2026. Counts are refreshed daily. Licence terms, timelines and capital thresholds are reviewed separately because they come from the underlying rules rather than the register.
- Known gap
- “Unavailable” means the figure does not yet exist or has not been published. “Not sourced” means the figure exists but Anvesan has not yet verified it. Neither is estimated.
- Corrections
- research@anvesan.org