305 tokenized securities make BVI the world leader

305 tokenized securities make BVI the world leader

Jackson Alton Hinkle

Sat, September 12, 2026 at 2:11 AM GMT+3 3 min read

"I have seen us withstand international pressures. I have seen us overhaul compliance regimes to meet OECD requirements. We're still here."

That is Ayana Hull's case for the British Virgin Islands (BVI). It isn't a forecast. It's an inventory. Hull heads BVI regulatory and financial services at Maples Group.

BVI Finance's own research puts the territory at 305 tokenized securities as of June 1, the highest count of any jurisdiction in the world. The territory accounts for more than 10% of the global market for US tokenized treasuries.

Hull's argument is that forty years of reworking company, fund, and anti-money laundering (AML) law produced all of it.

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The rulebook keeps getting rewritten

Hull has watched the BVI replace its foundational statutes since starting her career. The International Business Companies Act, in place since 1984, gave way to the BVI Business Companies Act in 2005 after international bodies pressed jurisdictions to stop offering foreign companies tax treatment their own domestic businesses couldn't get.

"I have seen the overhaul of the AML regulations, the code 2018," Hull said.

Other changes were made to stay competitive. The BVI introduced the approved manager in 2012 and the incubator and approved funds in 2015, aimed at Cayman.

The rulebook gets rewritten every time a regulator or rival moves. Digital assets are the latest round.

The base beneath the tokens

Hull's case rests on companies, not blockchains. The BVI has roughly 362,000 active companies on its books and recorded more than 7,000 new ones in the first quarter of 2026, up 10% year over year and the strongest first quarter since 2022.

The rest of the pitch predates crypto entirely.

"We have the English legal system. We have a commercial court that has proven that you can have proper representation in the BVI. We have the US dollar as the legal tender," Hull said. "We have direct flights now from Miami. You can get to the BVI in two hours."

Those 305 securities sit on top of those 362,000 companies.

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Compliance issues aren't going anywhere

Hull's forecast and her complaint arrive together.

"In the next four to five years, I would expect the BVI to be a leading jurisdiction in token issuance, in custody, VASP exchanges," she said. "We are struggling with these centralized exchanges because of the compliance issue."

Hull sits on the Financial Services Commission's virtual assets advisory committee, so the process she is describing is one she helps advise.

The territory isn't necessarily proposing an easier process. Financial services minister Lorna Smith has publicly said she wants "a little more speed," with a condition attached. "You don't want to hurry and make the wrong decision. But at the same time, you don't want to lose the business."

Hull's answer is capacity rather than pace.

"Compliance is just a major problem that's not going away," she said. "Nothing needs to change over the next four to five years except that we continue to be better at what we do."

The minister is working on how fast the BVI can decide, and the advisor is working on how well they can. It is the same trade the territory has made before. Absorb the rule, keep the business.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Sep 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Policy section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.