Report contents
LATAM · Emerging
Panama
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 50 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +0 |
| Inflation 0.6% · unbanked 36% · remittances 0.6% GDP · capital controls 0 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.079 |
| Need multiplier | ×0.619 |
| Livability score | 0.368 |
Raw 50/84 = 0.595 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.08, from five components: inflation 0.6% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 36% of adults, remittances 0.6% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.00 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×0.62. Livability score 0.368, rank #53 of 79.
Three findings
Zero tax on crypto, written into the geography rather than a crypto law
Panama scores a perfect 4 on tax because its territorial system simply does not tax foreign-sourced income, including capital gains from overseas exchanges, so most residents and expats owe nothing. The auditor calls it the weakest 4 in the index precisely because it rests on a general exemption rather than an explicit crypto statute, and a comprehensive bill that would codify it remains unpassed.
A dollarised economy with the rails but not the reason
Panama posts top scores on exchange access, ATM density and crypto cards, the most mature crypto-banking ecosystem in the region after Argentina, with 34 cards available to residents through the locally licensed Towerbank and its Ikigii app. Yet the need multiplier is just 0.62, the lowest in this set: the US dollar is legal tender, inflation ran 0.6%, and there is no inflation-hedge use case. Panama is the only country here to fall in the livability table, dropping four places to #53.
Crypto income sits in a legal void, and no utility takes it
Income legality scores 1: a crypto-commerce law was vetoed in 2023 and crypto compensation is unaddressed in labour and tax statute. Utility-bill coverage is 0/6; Panama City's April 2025 move to accept crypto covers taxes, permits and tickets, none of which are eligible utility categories.
In one line
"Panama built a polished crypto-banking stack on top of the US dollar, and the dollar quietly made it optional. With no inflation to outrun, the rails are a convenience for the wealthy and the tourist, not a lifeline."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 3/4, trending liberalising on institutional signals rather than enacted law. Bill No. 247, introduced 20 March 2025, proposes a Financial Action Task Force-aligned licensing regime for virtual-asset service providers and explicit recognition of crypto as a medium of exchange; a companion Bill 326 was also introduced. Neither has passed, and a 2022 predecessor was vetoed. Panama signed the OECD crypto-asset reporting agreement in December 2025 and exited the European Commission's high-risk money-laundering list in July 2025.