TVTG

Pursuant to Article 12 TVTG, natural and legal persons who have a registered office or place of residence in Liechtenstein and who wish to provide one of the following services on a professional basis in Liechtenstein must register with the FMA:

• Token Issuers:  Persons who offer tokens to the public in their own name or in the name of a client. The former, referred to as "self-issuers", are not subject to any registration obligation. They must comply with the provisions of Article 38a TVTG, however.
• Token Generators: Persons who put tokens into circulation for clients and ensure the technical requirements vis-à-vis third parties for effective disposal over tokens. "Putting into circulation" refers to the initial provision of a token on a TT system.
• Tokenisation Service Providers: Persons who put tokens into circulation for clients and (in contrast to a Token Generator) ensure the legal and technical requirements vis-à-vis third parties for effective representation and transfer of rights via tokens.
• TT Depositaries:  Persons who safeguard tokens or TT Keys for clients. The TT Depository combines the services of the TT Token Depository, TT Key Depository, and TT Protector previously separated out under the TVTG. "Irregular custody" is now also covered.
• Physical Validators: Persons who ensure the enforcement of rights in accordance with the agreement, in terms of property law, to goods represented in tokens on TT systems.
• TT Exchange Service Providers: Persons who exchange legal tender for crypto-assets and vice versa as well as crypto-assets for crypto-assets against their own book.
• TT Verifying Authorities: Persons who verify the legal capacity and the requirements for the disposal over a token.
• TT Price Service Providers: Persons who provide TT system users with aggregated, i.e. self-calculated, price information on the basis of purchase and sale offers or completed transactions, i.e. who publish such information. 
• TT Identity Service Providers: Persons who identify the person in possession of the right of disposal related to a token and who record it in a directory.
• Token Lending Undertakings: Persons who receive transferred tokens under the condition that they can dispose of them at their own discretion or on the instructions of customers, but must transfer tokens back after a certain period of time.
• TT Trading Platform Operators: Persons who operate a crypto-asset trading platform which brings together or facilitates the bringing together of multiple third-party purchasing and selling interests, on the platform and in accordance with its rules, in a way that results in a contract, either by exchanging crypto-assets for other crypto-assets or for a fiat currency that is legal tender. 
• TT Crypto-Asset Managers: Persons who manage portfolios in accordance with mandates given by customers on a discretionary client-by-client basis where such portfolios include one or more crypto-assets or who offer or give personalised recommendations to customers in respect of one or more transactions relating to crypto-assets, or the use of crypto-asset services.
• TT Transfer Service Providers: Persons who initiate the disposal of one or more crypto-assets from one TT Identifier to another TT Identifier on behalf of customers. The transfer of tokens for customers was previously included in the registration as a TT Token Depository or TT Key Depository and must now also be registered separately.
• TT Agents: Persons professionally distributing or providing TT services in the name of and for the account of a foreign TT service provider in Liechtenstein.

The registration obligation exists regardless of whether another licence has already been granted by the FMA. Certain undertakings that have already been issued a licence by the FMA can undergo a simplified registration procedure, however (see Articles 19a et seq. TVTG).

According to Article 19(2) TVTG, the FMA must decide on the full application within three months. The duration of the registration process depends substantially on the completeness and quality of the materials submitted.

Under the simplified registration procedure pursuant to Articles 19a et seq. TVTG, certain documents and information must be submitted to the FMA. If these are complete and of sufficient quality, the FMA must perform the registration within 20 working days. If this is not the case, the undertaking is granted a grace period of at most 20 working days to rectify these documents and information.

The specific information and documents to be submitted are set out in FMA Instruction 2024/1.

The costs for the grant or denial of a registration under the regular registration procedure amount to a flat rate of CHF 3 500. The fee for the information procedure pursuant to Article 43(2)(b) TVTG can be counted towards the registration fee, so that the fee for the grant or denial of a registration then amounts to CHF 1 500.

There are no costs for registration under the simplified procedure.

The TVTG is not part of Liechtenstein financial market law. TT Service Providers are therefore in principle not considered financial intermediaries and are not subject to the European requirements governing licensing/registration and supervision, unlike a bank, for instance, even if they may perform similar activities.

The provisions of due diligence law (under the Due Diligence Act, DDA) are an exception, given that they apply equally to both traditional financial intermediaries and TT Service Providers subject to due diligence.

Consequently, this means that apart from supervision in the context of money laundering prevention under the DDA, the FMA does not carry out other ongoing supervision of TT Service Providers. Accordingly, TT Service Providers are not audited annually by a mandated auditor or the FMA. The FMA becomes active under supervision law only pursuant to (incident-specific) reporting provided for in the TVTG or on the basis of information provided by a third party.

As part of implementation of the FATF standard, all service providers who provide services for third parties in connection with tokens or crypto-assets (Article 3 DDA) are subject to money laundering supervision. These service providers are:

• Token Issuers subject to registration;
• TT Depositaries;
• TT Exchange Service Providers;
• Token Lending Undertakings;
• TT Trading Platform Operators; 
• TT Crypto-Asset Managers;
• TT Transfer Service Providers
• TT Agents subject to registration obligation if they provide or distribute TT services for the aforementioned TT service providers.

Operators of trading platforms for non-fungible tokens are also subject to due diligence.

Furthermore, the due diligence of traders in goods has been extended such that the trader is subject to the DDA also when accepting crypto-assets equivalent to CHF 10,000 as payment for goods.

Registration under the TVTG is effective exclusively in Liechtenstein; passporting according to the model of European financial market laws is therefore not possible.

If a service provider wishes to operate on a cross-border basis and, for example, advertise abroad or approach clients abroad, the service provider must therefore independently clarify in advance whether the service is subject to licensing in the chosen country.