Buying a $250 Residency Card From a Tropical Island Let Me Bypass U.S. Crypto Laws.

“Welcome to the metaverse on earth!” Reads a letter printed on dark blue paper, decorated with a luxurious gold stamp; accompanying it is an identity card for the Republic of Palau, a tropical island in Micronesia, not far from Indonesia and the Philippines.

The enclosed document appears to be the main focus of the missive: it can be used to check into rental accommodations within the nation, to extend a tourist visa for Palau by 180 days, and, most importantly, as a valid document for cryptocurrency exchanges.

This new method seems to have been discovered by U.S. traders, as it allows them to circumvent most U.S. restrictions regarding the amount of cryptocurrency that can be withdrawn and the exchanges that can be made. Kraken and Binance, two of the most famous trading platforms in the industry, have noticed considerable abuse of this methodology, thus prohibiting the use of ID cards from Palau.