Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP)
Abbreviation: VASP
Pronunciation: VUR-choo-ul AS-et SUR-vis pruh-VYE-der (V-A-S-P)
Also known as: Virtual Asset Service Provider, VASP
Definition
A Virtual Asset Service Provider is a business that performs specified virtual-asset exchange, transfer, safekeeping, administration, or related financial services for others. The term is used in anti-money-laundering frameworks, notably by the Financial Action Task Force, to describe covered service activity involving virtual assets. Depending on facts and jurisdiction, exchanges, custodians, transfer services, brokers, and certain issuance-related providers may qualify.
Overview
How it works and where it fits
A technical label such as decentralized, non-custodial, protocol, or wallet does not by itself determine regulatory status. Classification depends on the activities performed, control, business relationship, jurisdiction, and applicable law, which may differ from the FATF framework or change over time.
Organizations should obtain jurisdiction-specific legal analysis, map services and control, identify licensing or registration, customer due diligence, sanctions, recordkeeping, reporting, and transfer-information obligations, and monitor regulatory change. Outsourcing compliance functions does not necessarily transfer accountability.
A Virtual Asset Service Provider is a business that performs specified virtual-asset exchange, transfer, safekeeping, administration, or related financial services for others. VASP status follows actual services and jurisdiction, so businesses must assess activities, control, customers, licensing, AML obligations, and regulatory change.
A production treatment of Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) should test a business that performs specified virtual-asset exchange, transfer, safekeeping, administration, or related financial services for others within the relevant asset, decision, or service state. The Virtual Asset Service context record for business that performs specified virtual-asset exchange, transfer, and safekeeping should preserve source data, configuration or policy version, responsible actor, exception, and outcome. Review of Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) should determine whether safeguards addressing business that performs specified virtual-asset exchange, transfer, and safekeeping changed exposure in practice, not merely whether a document or setting existed.
Quality review for Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) should sample real cases involving business that performs specified virtual-asset exchange, transfer, and safekeeping, compare expected and actual outcomes, and track unresolved exceptions until remediation is independently verified.
Related glossary concepts
Wallet Risk Assessment; Wallet Incident; Token Approval Revocation
Primary reference
Example
A business offers customers hosted wallets and converts their virtual assets into fiat. Those services may fall within VASP activity under FATF's risk-based framework, even if the company also sells conventional software. By contrast, a purely informational website may not perform a covered financial service; the exact activity and jurisdiction decide.
Comparison
FATF's definition and each jurisdiction's actual laws must be evaluated separately. Licensing, AML/CFT duties, transfer-information rules and recordkeeping vary; a self-description such as decentralized or non-custodial is not a legal exemption. Seek qualified local counsel and review the most recent FATF standards rather than treating an old guidance document as a fixed global statute.
Key Takeaway
VASP duties depend on the services performed and jurisdiction, not on a company's marketing label.
Sources
- FATF Documentation: Virtual Assets — FATF (2026-07-30)
- FATF Documentation: Fatf Recommendations — FATF (2026-07-30)