The initiative received unanimous approval from the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee (COFAP), with votes in favour from PSD, PS, Chega and CDS-PP, the only parties that participated in this vote.

At issue is a government bill that transposes into national law the rules implementing European Regulation 2023/1113, which strengthens measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism in Portuguese legislation, adapting the rules already applied to the financial sector regarding fund transfers to the reality of crypto-assets.

With the new measures, "crypto-asset service providers based in Portugal" will be considered financial entities for the purposes of supervision by the Bank of Portugal, and will have to comply with the same rules that banks already have to follow to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing through fund transfers.

Therefore, the Bank of Portugal will be responsible for supervising "crypto-asset service providers based in Portugal," as well as "crypto-asset service providers based in another Member State of the European Union established in national territory in a form other than a branch," and also credit institutions or "other entities of an equivalent nature, operating in Portugal under the freedom to provide services regime."

If financial institutions identify a “high risk” of money laundering in fund or cryptocurrency transfers, they will have to “know the entire circuit of the funds or cryptoassets” and “all the participants” to ensure that “only entities or persons duly authorized to process” cryptocurrency transactions are involved, regardless of their capacity.

At the proposal of the PSD and CDS-PP parties, the initiative, if approved in a final global vote and promulgated by the President of the Republic, will enter into force on July 1, 2026, alongside another initiative, also voted on and approved today in committee, which transposes the European regulation known as “MICA” into national law to strengthen supervision of the activity of cryptocurrency companies.

The PS presented a similar initiative, proposing that the new rules only enter into force in the second half of next year. Since the PSD and CDS-PP proposal was validated first, this amendment did not reach a vote, as it was deemed ineffective.

At the same meeting, a resolution proposed by the PAN party was also voted on and unanimously approved, recommending that the government implement policies to combat misleading advertising of crypto-assets on social media platforms.