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World Wide Crypto-currency regulations in 2018

2017 was the year of ICO, 2018 has every chance to become a year of crypto-currency regulation. Today, many countries are trying to determine the place in the world for crypto currency, and how to treat it. Some countries show a peace-loving attitude, others – they keep their ears open. Some even refer to electronic money with obvious dislike. Next, you can see a small analysis of how different countries are related to the regulation of the Crypto-currency.

 

USA and Canada

At the moment, the United States has not yet decided how to treat crypto-currency. The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC) warns people against investing in the crypto currency, prohibits some ICO and speaks about a more serious regulation of the crypto currency.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was the first regulatory body in America to allow the public to trade in crypto-currency derivatives.

US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin noted the advantage of paper money over electronic ones. January 12, 2018 at a meeting of the Economic Club of Washington, he noted that the crypto currency can be used for money laundering. The Minister of Finance also added that the US Financial Stability Supervision Council had set up a working group to study the crypto-currency market. Mnuchin states that he does not want the crypto currency to be used for illegal operations.

On January 26, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Segal Mandelker agreed with the minister’s opinion. During a press conference in Tokyo, she spoke positively about the three Asian countries that established control over the trade in crypto currency. Mandelker said that such regulation should be practiced in all countries.

The Canadian Agency for the Financial Protection of Consumers believes that crypto currency is an illegal means of payment. Despite this, Canada is not very strict about the regulation of crypto-currency. In truth, with respect to e-currency regulation laws, Canada, after Switzerland, has become the most transparent country on this list.

After several weeks of hearings, the Canadian Parliament approved bill Bill C-34 of June 19, 2014. This bill became the first national law on electronic currency in the world. On August 24, 2017, an agency called the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) sent an appeal informing that it was possible to use this law with respect to crypto-currency.

In contrast, in January 2018, the governor of the Central Bank of Canada Stephen Poloz opposed the term “crypto”, because it is crypto, but not currency, they are not assets, but most likely securities. It is also important to note that as part of the North American Association of Securities Administrators (NASAA), Canada takes part in the Association’s cautionary directive on the risks related to crypto currency.

 

The European Union and the United Kingdom

While, in view of Brexit in March 2019, the EU and the UK should separate from each other, they have similar points of view regarding the regulation of the crypto currency. December 4, 2017 in The Guardian and The Telegraph reported that the Ministry of Finance of Great Britain and the European Union intend to put an end to the anonymity of crypto-currency traders.

The European Union is going to set orders, according to which on the crypto-currency platforms will be full control of visitors, as well as will inform about transactions that cause suspicion. The UK Treasury has the same intentions, despite the fact that at the moment it can not be asserted with full confidence that the digital currency is being used for money laundering.

In the whole of Europe they are trying to toughen the measures in relation to the crypto-currency. On January 15, the French Minister of Economy announced the formation of a working group on the regulation of crypto-currencies, and the representative of the German Federal Bank spoke in favor of regulating the electronic currency in global terms.

Although the EU and the UK have not yet publicized the final results, it is foreseen that they will be informed about them in the spring.

 

Japan

Although in Japan digital money has become widespread, this country can not be considered undemanding in regulatory matters. Drawing to itself all the best of the crypto-currency industry, Japan is just ahead of China and South Korea, where electronic money is treated with hostility. Without any doubt, Japan refers to the crypto currency with much more friendliness than China and South Korea.

However, in the near future interest in crypto currency may decrease. The attack on the Japanese exchange Coincheck, which occurred in January, led to a loss of $ 530. It was the reason for the negative attitude of the community and attracted the attention of the Financial Services Agency (FSA).

 

China

In China, there are more and more actions that make it more difficult to popularize digital currencies. First, the country’s authorities banned the ICO, then the banks froze accounts relating to crypto-exchange exchanges and, after all, Internet access to everything connected with the trade in crypto-currency was banned. All this led to the fact that the world’s largest crypto-exchange exchanges suffered losses. In addition, these exchanges and miners had to change their location.

From all of the above, it follows that China has become the most severe regulator of the Crypto-currency. This is strange enough, because in 2017 Chinese bitcoin miners accounted for about 70 percent of all miners in the world, and the crypto currency was spreading faster in China than in other countries.

Most likely, such serious actions of the Chinese authorities can be attributed to the fact that China is struggling with the outflow of capital, corruption and working on they own CryptoYuan.

 

Russia

Russia also has not yet decided how to treat crypto-currency regulation. Last year, in September, the head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, reported that the bank does not support the regulation of bitcoin as a currency, as well as its equating to foreign currency.

In the same month, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexei Moiseev said that the calculations in electronic currency are illegal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with the Ministry of Finance that the use of crypto currency is a risky business, it can be used for money laundering, tax evasion, financing of terrorism and other forms of fraud.

In December 2017, the Ministry of Finance proposed to introduce a tax on the mining activity of the crypto currency. In January 2017, Vladimir Putin spoke on the regulation of the crypto currency:

“At the moment, this is the priority right of the Central Bank, which has all the powers to do so. However, the regulation of the crypto currency at the legislative level in the near future will, of course, be necessary. ”
Two weeks later, on January 25, the Ministry of Finance issued a law “On Digital Financial Assets”. If this law is adopted, then the crypto currency and tokens will be considered digital financial assets, but they will not be legal payments in Russia. The Finance Ministry proposed to approve the crypto currency as a property in digital form at the legislative level. As for transactions related to the crypto currency, in the territory of the Russian Federation they must be carried out in a special order.

Authorized by the President of the Russian Federation for the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights and presidential candidate Boris Titov called this law too strict and added that it is better not to take any action than to adopt this law in its present form.

The State Duma is already considering the proposed versions of the draft laws, but finally one of them will be selected only in the spring.

 

South Korea

Earlier in South Korea, the crypto currency was very popular. This country was even called a “life circle”, which was to become a salvation after China’s bans.

Nevertheless, in January 2018, Korean officials began to argue about the future regulation of e-currency. Because of the uncertainty and possible negative consequences of regulation, prices on the crypto-currency markets fell on Red Tuesday and January 30, when the law on the prohibition of trade in crypto currency from nameless accounts began to operate. Since the community actively opposed this law, it was abolished.

South Korean regulators also asked six major Korean banks to provide information about account holders regarding the trade in crypto currency.

 

Singapore

Until recently, Singapore’s attitude toward the regulation of the Crypto-currency was quite calm. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) warned of speculative risks in the crypto-currency markets due to a significant increase in the cost of bitcoin in December 2017.

January 9, 2018 Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tarman Shanmugaratnam said that Singapore’s legislative bodies do not see the difference between transactions made with the help of paper money, crypto currency or other methods of transferring money.

The Head of the Mint Finance Department, Sopnendu Mohantu, explained that there is a need to take measures to protect consumers in relation to the crypto currency.

 

India

India, which for a long time related to the crypto currency is quite ambiguous, has now become more demanding. Strengthening measures occurred for the same reasons as in other countries: money laundering, financing of terrorism, tax evasion, illegal actions, etc.

However, members of the country’s crypto industry doubt that India will prohibit the crypto-currency market, as it did with China.

 

Australia

In August 2017, the Australian Commonwealth Bank was at the center of a financial scandal, after which the Australian authorities decided to go for Japan and strengthen the laws against money laundering and take measures to regulate the crypto currency. Previously, the government of the country did not interfere in this industry, but the lack of visible regulation had negative results, as at the end of 2017 Australian crypto-currency brokers stopped investing Australian dollars. At the same time, the Australian Tax Service made it clear that in the near future, measures will be implemented to regulate the crypto currency.

However, in the government of the country there are adherents of the crypto currency, which in August 2017 demanded that the Reserve Bank of Australia begin to accept the digital currency as a kind of money. Consequently, Australia has not yet determined how to treat the regulation of the crypto currency, but in the future the attitude of this country may turn out to be peace-loving.

 

Switzerland

Switzerland progressively applies not only to matters relating to the banking sector, but also to the regulation of the Crypto-currency. Unlike the EU countries, Switzerland is open to the crypto-currency sector.

The Minister of Economy of the country stated his desire to become a witness of how Switzerland becomes a “crypto-state”, and the State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance said that he wants the ICO to develop.

On January 10, Switzerland formed a working group whose goal is “to strengthen legal certainty, preserve the unity of the financial center and ensure the technological and neutral regulation of the Crypto-Currency and ICO.”

 

Venezuela

Venezuela is not a country with a large global economy and does not have a large number of investors. However, the attitude of the country’s authorities to the crypto currency is interesting, since the state intends to avoid economic sanctions by inventing its crypto currency “Petro”.

In early 2017, Venezuela planned to apply serious actions to the regulation of the crypto currency, because due to inflation many people began to use the digital currency instead of the national currency, the Venezuelan bolivar. At the end of the year, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also tried to regulate the mining sector.

As a result of issuing its national crypto currency, Venezuela can become one of the most advanced countries in relation to the regulation of the crypto currency.

 

Nigeria

Last year, Nigeria experienced a crisis, which resulted in the collapse of the country’s official currency. Crypto currency, in particular bitcoin, is very popular in Nigeria.

At the beginning of 2017, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intended to ban electronic money, but then the deputy director of the bank changed his attitude to the crypto currency, saying that “the Central Bank does not have the ability to regulate or control bitcoin. Also, no one can regulate or control the Internet. They are not our property. ” In 2017, bitcoin trade increased 15-fold.

In January 2018, the head of the bank Edwin Emefile again issued a statement that it is necessary to regulate the crypto currency:

“Crypto-currencies or bitcoins are like gambling … As the Central Bank, we do not want to encourage situations when people are putting their savings under attack for the sake of” excitement. ”
Ghana

On January 22, the head of the Bank of Ghana, Ernest Addison, said that “at the moment, bitcoin is an illegal payment instrument.” Although the parliament is considering a bill that permits the use of crypto currency, the country still treats bitcoin and other crypto-currencies as illegal money. Before Addison made a statement, the Investment Bank of Ghana Group Ndoum recommended that the Bank of Ghana invest 1 percent of its reserve funds in bitcoins.

 

South African Republic

The South African republic is promising for crypto-currencies. In July 2017, the country’s authorities began working together with Bankymoon, a block-building company, to create an “agreed” approach to bitcoin regulation.

Over the past ten years, the national currency of South Africa, the South African rand, has been repeatedly depreciated. In 2018, the country has not yet expressed its attitude to the regulation of the crypto currency. Due to the fact that the South African national currency depends on China, South Africa can also accept China’s view on the regulation of the crypto currency.

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