Crypto Overview in Jordan

Regulatory data is for informational purposes only and may not reflect the most current legal developments. Always consult qualified professionals before making decisions.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan concluded a decade of de-facto crypto prohibition with the enactment of Law No. 14 of 2025 on Regulating Dealings in Virtual Assets, published in Official Gazette No. 5996 on 16 June 2025 and effective 14 September 2025. The law places the Jordan Securities Commission at the centre of virtual asset service provider licensing, reserves payment-system authority for the Central Bank of Jordan, and draws heavily from the United Arab Emirates regulatory model while adopting a more compliance-led posture. Subsidiary Regulation No. 94 of 2025, the Virtual Asset Service Providers Licensing Regulation, specifies capital requirements, licensing fees, and supervisory obligations and entered into force 30 days after its publication in January 2025.

Legal Classification and Regulatory Framework

Cryptocurrency Status

Virtual assets are not legal tender in Jordan. Law No. 14 of 2025 defines virtual assets as digital representations of value used for trading, transfer, payment, or investment, and excludes digital securities already regulated under securities law, digital representations of the Jordanian dinar issued by the Central Bank, and electronic money unless the Central Bank decides otherwise. Commercial dealing in virtual assets is now legal for licensed entities; conducting any of the four regulated activity types without a Jordan Securities Commission licence is a criminal offence carrying imprisonment of not less than one year and fines of JOD 50,000 to JOD 100,000, with compulsory closure of premises and confiscation of equipment. The extraterritorial reach of the law is explicit: foreign platforms that accept Jordanian dinars or actively market to Jordanian residents are required to obtain a JSC licence regardless of where they are incorporated or where their servers are located.

Tax Treatment

Jordan has no general personal capital gains tax. The Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD) had not published authoritative crypto-specific guidance as of early 2026. Under the general income tax framework, gains from asset disposal may be taxable where assets are treated as trading stock or where disposal forms part of a business activity; mining and staking are generally considered business income subject to corporate income tax. The standard corporate income tax rate for non-financial companies is 20%. Implementing regulations applying the income tax framework to virtual assets were anticipated during 2026 and had not yet been enacted at the time of writing. Operators should monitor ISTD bulletins directly for authoritative guidance.

Regulatory Oversight

The Jordan Securities Commission (JSC) (هيئة الأوراق المالية الأردنية) holds primary authority over VASP licensing, supervision, inspection, and enforcement. The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) (البنك المركزي الأردني) retains exclusive authority over the use of virtual assets for payment purposes, meaning that JSC-licensed VASPs cannot facilitate crypto payments until the CBJ issues authorizing instructions, which had not occurred as of early 2026. Banks and other CBJ-supervised institutions may engage in virtual asset exchange and custody upon obtaining prior CBJ approval under a separate track. A joint inter-ministerial committee, chaired by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, oversees framework implementation alongside the JSC, CBJ, and the National Cybersecurity Center. The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Unit (AMLU), Jordan’s national Financial Intelligence Unit operating under the Ministry of Finance, receives suspicious transaction reports from VASPs under AML/CTF Law No. 20 of 2021.

Business Environment

Banking Relationships

Banking access remains the principal practical bottleneck for virtual asset businesses in Jordan. The Central Bank of Jordan’s 2014 Circular No. 1/1/5/2451, supplemented by directives in 2018 and 2021, prohibited banks, exchange houses, and payment service providers from dealing in cryptocurrencies. These circulars were not formally rescinded following enactment of Law No. 14 of 2025. The law carves out a separate approval path for CBJ-supervised institutions, but payment-rail instructions opening standard bank accounts to JSC-licensed VASPs had not been issued as of early 2026. Businesses should engage the CBJ and commercial banking partners early to establish a compliant funding structure and should plan for a period during which client fiat on-ramps and off-ramps may require bespoke arrangements.

Innovation Support

The Central Bank of Jordan operates the JoRegBox regulatory sandbox through the JOIN Fincubator, which is administered by the Jordan Payments and Clearing Company (JoPACC). Updated JoRegBox guidance was published by the CBJ in January 2025. In February 2026, Fuze, a UAE-regulated virtual assets infrastructure firm, became the first virtual asset company admitted to JoRegBox, testing digital asset solutions for regulated banks and fintechs under CBJ oversight. The broader innovation ecosystem includes Jordan FinTech Bay, the Crown Prince Foundation, and the framework of the Economic Modernisation Vision 2033 and CBJ Financial Technology and Innovation Vision. The JoRegBox application process is risk-based and free of application fees at the sandbox stage.

Crypto License in Jordan

Jordan’s virtual asset licensing framework is administered by the Jordan Securities Commission under Law No. 14 of 2025 and the implementing Regulation No. 94 of 2025. The framework covers four distinct activity categories, each with its own capital threshold, and requires applicants to complete a two-stage process before commencing operations.

Licensing Requirements

Only private or public joint-stock companies incorporated in Jordan may hold a VASP licence; natural persons are ineligible, and the company’s stated purpose must be virtual asset activities. Minimum paid-up capital requirements differ by activity type: platform operators and managers must hold JOD 1,500,000; custodians JOD 2,000,000; trading brokers JOD 500,000; and financial services providers for virtual asset offerings JOD 500,000. Where an applicant seeks licences for multiple activity types, capital requirements are cumulative. The regulation also requires appointment of an external financial auditor and a separate external technical auditor covering electronic systems and virtual asset custody procedures.

Ongoing compliance obligations include customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, suspicious transaction reporting to AMLU, and adherence to FATF travel rule obligations for transfers. VASPs must maintain a dedicated compliance function in accordance with JSC instructions and establish client-facing complaint-handling units. Article 12 of Law No. 14 mandates statutory asset segregation: client assets must be held separately from the VASP’s own assets and are protected from the provider’s creditors in insolvency, cannot be seized, and cannot be pledged as collateral.

Authorized Activities

The four licensed activity categories cover: (1) operating or managing a virtual asset trading platform; (2) providing virtual asset custody services; (3) acting as a trading broker between buyers and sellers of virtual assets; and (4) providing financial services related to the issuance or offering of virtual assets. Tokenised securities that fall within the existing securities law definition remain under the JSC’s securities track rather than the VASP track. The Central Bank retains exclusive authority over any activity involving virtual assets used for payment purposes, which constitutes a fifth category outside the JSC licensing perimeter until CBJ payment instructions are issued.

Application Process and Timeline

Applicants must first obtain JSC preliminary approval before registering the company in Jordan; only after preliminary approval is granted can the applicant proceed to register the entity and then submit the final licence application. The JSC is required by regulation to issue a decision within 90 days of receiving a complete submission, whether for preliminary approval or a final licence. Practical timelines accounting for document preparation, legal and compliance structuring, and the preliminary approval stage typically extend the full process to three to nine months. Key fees include a non-refundable application fee of JOD 1,000; a one-time licensing fee of JOD 100,000 for platform operators, JOD 50,000 for custody and brokerage, or JOD 30,000 for participation and financial services; annual renewal fees of JOD 50,000, JOD 25,000, or JOD 15,000 respectively; and an ongoing transaction commission of 0.0005 of each contract or order value. Licence revocations and suspensions are publicly announced within seven days in newspapers and on the JSC website.

Market Characteristics

Adoption Patterns

Retail crypto activity in Jordan developed primarily through offshore platforms and informal peer-to-peer markets during the decade in which formal banking rails were closed to virtual assets. Jordan’s remittance market, estimated at a substantial share of household income in many communities, has historically been a driver of interest in lower-cost cross-border transfer methods including crypto-rails. The 2025 licensing framework is expected to shift a meaningful portion of this activity into the regulated perimeter over time, with the pace dependent on how quickly the Central Bank issues payment authorizations enabling licensed providers to operate full end-to-end fiat conversion services.

Industry Focus

The licensed perimeter targets exchanges, brokers, custodians, and primary-issuance platforms. Tokenised securities sit in a separate track under existing securities law. Mining is not a structural feature of Jordan’s economy and Law No. 14 does not establish a dedicated mining or proof-of-work regime. The February 2026 admission of Fuze to the JoRegBox sandbox signals early institutional interest in building virtual asset infrastructure for regulated banks and fintechs within the country, consistent with the CBJ’s stated goal of developing Jordan as a regional fintech hub under the Economic Modernisation Vision 2033.

Regulatory Evolution

Jordan was placed on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in October 2021 following its MENAFATF mutual evaluation, and was removed from that list at the FATF plenary on 27 October 2023 in Paris, after a September 2023 on-site verification visit confirmed the effectiveness and sustainability of Jordan’s AML/CTF reforms. The grey-list cycle accelerated Jordan’s legislative programme and directly informed the scope of AML/CTF obligations embedded in Law No. 14 of 2025, particularly the explicit designation of VASPs as notifying entities and the inclusion of FATF Recommendation 15 travel rule requirements. Further implementing regulations governing specific operational details were expected from the JSC and CBJ during 2026, meaning the framework will continue to develop in the near term.