Cayman Crypto Foundation Count Climbs to New Heights

The Cayman Islands, with a secure British legal system, safe business environment and tax neutral status, has long been a favoured home to US Hedge funds (35,000+) and crypto companies, and new data from the Cayman Islands General Registry underscores just how much that growth has continued.

In 2017, the Cayman Islands legislated into existence the Cayman Foundation in the Foundation Companies Act, a highly flexible corporate structure which could operate to manage wealth and behave in many respects like a fund. Foundations have a number of actors including:

1. Directors, who may be executive or non-executive and who are the mind, management and control;

   
   

2. Supervisors, who typically have the power to add and remove directors, providing a useful oversight function. The Supervisor should always be completely independent from the foundation's directors;

   
   

3. The Founder, which is an optional role that is typically excluded from web3 structures, but typically has power to replace the Supervisor and so directors. A founder should always be entirely independent from a foundation's directors;

   
   

4. Beneficiaries, which are not required and are typically not included in web3 structures but can be included to have a foundation operate more like a trust; and

   
   

5. Members, every foundation starts with one, but they usually resign, creating an "ownerless" or "orphaned" structure.

The ability to create an ownerless structure with an independent board co-incided with the rise of web3 projects and decentralised autonomous organisations, and since 2018 the number of foundations in the Cayman Islands has continued to grow.

In 2023, the islands were home to 793 foundation but in 2025, that figure topped 1,700, meaning that more than 1 foundation a day has been being incorporated. This boom has seen numerous law firms recently seek to profess web3 expertise and established a strong director and services talent pool assisting web3 projects to have the best chances of success. (When choosing a web3 provider, look to those with a long track record, deepest knowledge and experience in the space).

The figure shows no sign of stopping as the US makes crypto friendlier rules but projects rapidly learn that new experimental structures, like the DUNA, are complimentary, not replacements for, Cayman Foundations. With accessible VASP regulation, and coming RWA and Tokenised Funds legislation, the Cayman Foundation remains both the gold standard, but also the very reasonable option for start-ups looking to embrace decentralisation and ensure greater certainty for their projects. By Michael Bacina