Exchanges including Bybit and OKX have taken advantage of the Indian Ocean archipelago state’s low taxes and light-touch regulation. As a result, Seychelles’ incoming on-chain bitcoin flows between 2019 and 2022 were equivalent to nearly 2.5 per cent of GDP, the IMF finds. Relative to everywhere else, that’s huge. Second and third on the list are Venezuela (0.8 per cent of GDP) and Moldova (0.7 per cent). Tax haven use is common in both crypto and tradfi, of course. FTX’s global trading business was incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda, and the firm rather famously had its headquarters in Bahamas. Binance, the biggest crypto exchange, holds a Cayman Islands registration but has no local accreditation and, it claims, no fixed abode.
