As soon as the technology company Circle bought Hashnote, one of the largest tokenised treasury and money market funds in the world, they moved it to Bermuda to take advantage of the island’s digital asset business licence.

“Bermuda is a global gold standard in regulation,” said Circle president Heath Tarbert. “That is why we are here today.”

Mr Tarbert opened the Bermuda Digital Finance Forum at Pier Six, with David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance.

Circle, manager of stablecoin USDC, acquired Hashnote in January and moved it from Cayman to Bermuda in March. Hashnote is the issuer of the USYC digital currency, with almost $1 billion deployed into USYC as of March 6.

Mr Burt said: “Bermuda has an incredible facility, internationally, when it comes to regulators. The expansion of what we are doing is the future of digital finance. Whether it is the insurance, asset management, payment or treasury management side, it is because of the work of the Bermuda Monetary Authority.”

He said at the start of Bermuda’s digital finance journey, there was pressure to set up a separate digital asset regulator.

However, former BMA chairman and chief executive officer Jeremy Cox advised him that digital finance would not work in Bermuda without the support of the BMA. Mr Burt listened.

“It was the right choice,” the Premier said.

He admitted that not everything worked the way they wanted it to in the beginning.

“We were trying to be all things to all people,” Mr Burt said.

He changed his focus to bigger companies that could survive the BMA’s rigorous regulatory requirements.

“We watched as some of the big companies went to other jurisdictions,” he said. “The criticism came that Bermuda was getting left behind. We said we would stick to our strategy. In 2025 we are, without question, the undisputed leaders for digital asset regulation.”

He told more than 200 forum attendees that Bermuda is a small island, but has built an excellent reputation.

“We were certainly not an overnight success,” he said. “What made Bermuda successful was what has always made us successful — sticking to it.”