Belgian-born bitcoin investor Olivier Janssens wants to build a multibillion-dollar libertarian enclave on the southern coast of Nevis. His proposal, called Destiny, has become the first application under Saint Kitts and Nevis’ new Special Sustainability Zones (SSZ) Authorization Act and the most divisive development proposal the federation has faced in years.
Janssens obtained Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship through the country’s citizenship by investment (CBI) program and now plans to acquire approximately 2,400 acres of privately held land on Nevis’ south coast, roughly a tenth of the island.
His company, South Nevis Ltd., has commissioned Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design what it bills as the “Monaco-Dubai of the Caribbean”: Luxury villas, medical clinics, and tech-oriented infrastructure operating under its own dispute resolution mechanisms.
The project sits at the intersection of a constitutional division of powers between the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) and the federal government, falling CBI revenues, and a global movement of crypto-wealthy investors seeking semi-autonomous enclaves in small jurisdictions.
US$100 a Month for Every Nevisian
On March 9, Janssens emailed his mailing list with an offer that opposition politicians promptly labeled bribery. Every Nevis resident, children included, would receive US$100 per month once the federal government approves the Destiny development agreement. For a family of four, that amounts to US$4,800 a year.
The sum represents a ninefold increase from the 30 East Caribbean dollars (approximately US$11) per person that Janssens proposed in November 2025. Destiny had originally planned to distribute five percent of profits to islanders, but Janssens said he wanted to accelerate payments because “meaningful profit sharing can take time as a project grows.”
Carlisle Powell, a former government minister for the opposition Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), called the offer “all leverage,” designed to pressure the authorities into approving the project.
Kelvin Daly, an NRP member, went further on social media, describing it as “influence-buying: a clear attempt by a private developer to interfere in the domestic socio-economic and political affairs of our country.” Janssens did not respond to the Financial Times’ request for comment.
A Federal-Nevis Standoff
Nevis Premier Mark Brantley has championed the project from the outset. He signed the development agreement with South Nevis Ltd. and forwarded it to the federal government for approval. Under the federation’s constitutional structure, Nevis maintains its own administration, premier, and parliament for internal affairs, but matters of immigration, courts, law enforcement, and federal legislation fall to Basseterre.
A dispute over timing has added friction. Brantley says he delivered the proposal on December 23, 2025, while Prime Minister Terrance Drew’s office says Cabinet received the application on January 29, 2026. No one has explained the five-week gap.
Drew has refused to be hurried. In a formal statement on March 10, he stressed that the federal government “does not have a general power over development taking place on Nevis” under Sections 106 and 119 of the Constitution, but insisted that immigration, courts, and sovereignty concerns fall squarely within federal jurisdiction.
“An investor or whoever cannot push and determine the timeline,” Drew said during a broadcast of The Roundtable. “The timeline is determined by a deliberate, prudent process.”
In February, the federal government activated two parallel review mechanisms. An Independent Oversight Body (IOB) held its inaugural meeting on February 20, drawing on Section 9 of the SSZ Authorization Act to conduct a structured, evidence-based review of the Destiny application.
A separate Ad Hoc Advisory Committee, which Drew appointed in January, has been reviewing the SSZ legislative framework itself. Its recommendations will produce amendments to the SSZ Authorization Act, with a first reading at the next sitting of the National Assembly, which the prime minister described as imminent.
Brantley, for his part, has publicly worried that delays could kill the project. “We have been concerned that this project does not die due to neglect in Basseterre,” he told a press conference in late February, noting that over 1,500 Nevisians had registered interest in employment with Destiny.
The CBI Pipeline
Most reporting on Destiny has centered on the libertarian-city narrative, but the investment migration dimension may be the most consequential for the federation’s finances. According to the Saint Kitts Nevis Observer, Janssens initially submitted Destiny as a conventional development project. Both governments then saw the potential influx of 7,000 to 10,000 property buyers as an opportunity to channel them through the CBI program.
Lawmakers shaped the SSZ legislation, at least in part, around this logic. MP Eric Evelyn, defending the SSZ Act during the 2026 Budget Debate in December, cited declining CBI revenues as a primary rationale: “We must find creative ways to bring additional revenue into the country.”
Premier Brantley has confirmed that all foreign property buyers at Destiny must pay fees under the Saint Kitts and Nevis CBI program, regardless of whether they actually seek citizenship.
The program currently requires a minimum real estate investment of US$325,000 for condominiums and development shares. Even buyers who do obtain citizenship could not vote, he added, because they “will be living in a special enclave with special rules, applicable to them.”
The federation has been working to rehabilitate its CBI program’s international standing, including through the recent rescission of a decade-old FinCEN advisory and plans to introduce genuine-link residency requirements. Routing thousands of Destiny buyers through the CBI system would present a different kind of test for the program’s due diligence infrastructure.
International tax and immigration advisor David Lesperance of Lesperance & Associates cautioned prospective buyers against treating the project’s approval as a foregone conclusion.
“While living in a community of like-minded people may be appealing, one should not make a purchase based on the hope that Destiny’s proposals to the Nevis or federal government will actually be accepted,” he said. “History is littered with similar proposed communities that ran aground on the shores of governments protecting their authority.”
Corporate Roots in the Libertarian Movement
Outside media have treated Destiny as a novel development proposal. A Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) investigation published on March 13, drawing on Isle of Man company registry filings, complicates that framing.
The filings identify Free Society Limited as secretary and joint secretary for Destiny International Limited, the corporate vehicle behind the Nevis project. Janssens serves as director of Destiny International; both companies share the same registered address.
A June 2025 filing names Janssens as the sole shareholder of Free Society and amends its stated purpose to “research decentralised governance models for free private cities for its shareholder.”
Free Society is not new. Janssens and fellow crypto entrepreneur Roger Ver, known widely as “Bitcoin Jesus,” launched it in 2017 with the stated goal of purchasing sovereign land to build a libertarian private city.
Ver renounced his US citizenship after obtaining Saint Kitts and Nevis CBI citizenship.
Local media in Nevis have raised questions about whether he holds a financial stake in the Destiny project, but no direct evidence has surfaced, and Janssens has not publicly addressed the connection.
Opposition figures in Nevis have also flagged a conflict of interest. Sharon Brantley, wife of Premier Mark Brantley, serves as the real estate agent assisting Janssens with land purchases for the project.
SSZ Safeguards and What Comes Next
If the federal Cabinet decides to advance the proposed Development Agreement following the IOB’s report, the path to approval is neither short nor simple. Under the SSZ Authorization Act, both the Nevis Island Assembly and the National Assembly must ratify the agreement through separate legislation.
The government would publish both bills in advance, giving the public full sight of the terms before parliamentary debate. Drew’s planned amendments to the SSZ Act itself could reshape the framework before the Destiny application reaches that legislative stage, though the scope of those amendments remains undisclosed.
Regardless of its outcome, the Destiny proposal has already forced a conversation about the boundaries between foreign investment and sovereignty in small Caribbean states. It has also surfaced the tension between Nevis’ desire for economic autonomy and Basseterre’s constitutional gatekeeping role, a tension long visible in disputes over CBI revenue sharing between the two islands.
The project belongs to a growing international phenomenon. From Próspera in Honduras to proposed “freedom cities” in the United States, crypto-wealthy investors and libertarian theorists are pursuing semi-autonomous zones with private governance structures, often in developing nations willing to experiment with legislative frameworks that wealthier countries would not entertain.
Whether that model can coexist with the sovereignty concerns of a 13,200-person island remains an open question, and one IMI will continue to track.
