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Jackson Miake is now Vanuatu’s Commissioner of Stablecoins. The appointment took effect in July 2026, making him the first person to hold the role under a brand-new legislative framework the country’s Parliament passed in 2025.
The job sits inside the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management and it’s a contract position — not a permanent civil service post. Miake steps into a role created by the Stablecoins Bill, which set up the Stablecoin Supervisory Commission, known as the SSC. The SSC is the body that formally appoints the Commissioner, and the term runs five years, with one possible reappointment. The law is pretty explicit that the selection must follow a merit-based, fair, and transparent process. Whether that process played out publicly is a different story — more on that in a moment.
The SSC’s mandate is broad. It oversees stablecoin operations across Vanuatu, and the bill gives it real teeth: licensing requirements for issuers, reserve mandates, and ongoing regulatory oversight. Stablecoin issuers operating in or from Vanuatu can’t just set up shop and move on. They face detailed disclosure obligations meant to protect consumers and keep the financial system stable. For a small Pacific island nation, that’s a fairly aggressive posture toward digital currency regulation.
What the Commissioner Actually Does
The role isn’t just a figurehead. Miake’s core responsibilities include organizing SSC meetings, setting agendas, putting decisions into action, and drafting annual strategic plans and work programs. He also handles secretariat support for the commission — basically keeping the whole operation running day to day — and mobilizes whatever resources the SSC needs to function. The legislation requires any candidate to bring at least five years of senior management experience relevant to those functions. That’s the statutory bar.
Miake’s background covers a pretty wide range. He spent six years — from 2012 to 2018 — as ICT Policy Manager at Vanuatu’s Department of Communications and Digital Transformation. That stretch involved crafting and implementing policies across the ICT and telecommunications sectors, which gave him a working knowledge of how regulatory frameworks get built and where they tend to break down. It’s not stablecoin-specific experience, but it’s not irrelevant either.
More recently, he was Governance Risk and Compliance Specialist at Exness, a role he held from January to July 2026 — right up until the appointment. And in the second half of 2025, he interned as a Team Leader at the Security Operations Centre within the Australian Cyber Security Aide Centre, a stint that ran from July to December 2025.
On the education side, Miake holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Massey University. He was also studying cybersecurity and human behavior at Western Sydney University as of April 2025. That technical grounding probably matters for a job that involves overseeing digital currency infrastructure, where the security risks are real and the regulatory complexity keeps growing.
The Transparency Gap Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s the thing, though. Neither the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, nor the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission, nor the SSC itself has put out any public statement about the appointment. No press release. No announcement of how the eligibility criteria were evaluated. No explanation of the selection process.
That’s a notable gap. The Stablecoins Bill specifically calls for a merit-based, fair, and transparent process. But the public record right now doesn’t show how that played out. Stakeholders — and anyone thinking about doing business under this regulatory framework — are basically left waiting for details that haven’t arrived.
It’s unclear whether the SSC ran an open competition, whether Miake was the sole candidate evaluated, or what the timeline looked like between the bill passing in 2025 and the July 2026 appointment. The Ministry didn’t specify. The SSC didn’t specify. No details.
Small nations entering the stablecoin regulation space face real scrutiny. Larger financial centers have spent years building out their frameworks — and even they get questioned on process. Vanuatu is newer to this, and the credibility of the SSC probably depends, at least in part, on how openly it handles decisions like this one. A first appointment with no public process documentation isn’t a great look, even if the appointee turns out to be well-suited.
Miake’s experience in governance, risk, and compliance — particularly that Exness role immediately before the appointment — does fit the job’s demands on paper. His ICT policy years in Vanuatu’s own government mean he’s not coming in cold on how the local regulatory environment works. And the cybersecurity background matters in a world where stablecoin infrastructure is a target.
But the process question won’t go away on its own. The SSC will need to say something eventually. Miake’s five-year term starts now, the commission’s work is just getting underway, and the Stablecoins Bill’s reserve mandates and licensing requirements will need active enforcement. The Commissioner’s first strategic plan will be the first real test of whether the framework has any operational weight behind it.
As of July 2026, no public timeline for that plan has been released.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Vanuatu’s first Stablecoin Commissioner?
Jackson Miake was appointed as Vanuatu’s Commissioner of Stablecoins in July 2026, under the country’s new Stablecoins Bill passed by Parliament in 2025.
What is the Stablecoin Supervisory Commission in Vanuatu?
The Stablecoin Supervisory Commission (SSC) was created by Vanuatu’s Stablecoins Bill to oversee stablecoin operations, including licensing requirements for issuers and reserve mandates. It appoints the Commissioner for a five-year term.
