Government Regulations On Bitcoin Around The World – What Are The Possible Reasons?
Crypto-industry has been one of the most controversial innovations and many countries have different attitudes or regulations regarding buying and selling crypto. If you have BTC worth of million dollars, you may find yourself in a not favorable situation if you live in a country, where the crypto-regulations are very strict or even banned.
If you live in India, your asset will be left without the opportunity to withdraw because the banks are no longer providing services to exchange crypto into cash. In China, you might even not be able not only to exchange crypto but get the Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) too. It is vivid that people all around the world are in different circumstances when it comes to buying and selling crypto. While others are having trouble with that, some countries are having open arms towards crypto.
The report was realized, which was analyzing the crypto-regulations in 130 countries. The article will review the major part of it and will suggest an explanation about the reasons for the differences.
Americas
In Argentina, cryptocurrencies are not considered legal, since the federal government is the only authority that is issuing the currencies. Even though Bitcoins are not specifically regulated, the demand and the exchange rate are very high, there are lots of rumors regarding starting to rule the transactions of bitcoins.
In 2017 Brazilian government warned its citizens regarding the risks from trading virtual currencies.
Canada allows the use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies generally. There are lots of places you can pay by Bitcoin, either goods or services.
Venezuela’s government was even planning to issue its own cryptocurrency Petro which would be backed up by Venezuela oil barrels, however, the National Assembly declared that it was illegal.
Europe
Europe is often mentioned as a cryptocurrency capital. After the 2008 economic crisis, Europe quickly started to support the regulations which itself was promoting the fintech technologies. As it more likely means blockchain there are lots of laws or regulations to support its development. In the 19 countries of the EuropeanUnion blockchain is used for the transparency of the information and shared data between markets and institutions.
Switzerland even has a canton which is named after crypto – “Crypto Valley”. It was caused by the mitigation of the crypto regulations and law. The Swiss state railway is now even accepting payments with BTC.
The situation in Malta is really in favor of crypto trading and its parliament imposed a pro-Bitcoin stance. It is even believed to be the inevitable future of money. The parliament passed new bills providing a framework for blockchain technology. Malta has become one of the most advanced countries where the iGaming sector, which involves virtual poker, online casinos, gambling, and slot games, is booming which was supported by the strong economy as people have more opportunities to have access to modern technologies. It was no surprise that Malta’s iGaming sector was one of pioneers who paid attention to gambling with Bitcoin becoming a new big thing and started developing games for such platforms. All this buzz gives hand to the government, which as experts suppose will take further steps towards crypto legitimation.
In Germany, Bitcoin is considered as a unit of account and the citizens are free to trade the way they want. However, the price includes tax and VAT. the government has not labeled it as a real currency so it gives them opportunities to avoid imposing any regulations on it. Despite this, they have issued warnings on the ICOs as they are the main tools used by the scammers against the general public.
Finland does not have specific regulations that deal with cryptocurrencies and there is no proposed legislation on cryptocurrencies pending in the Finnish Parliament. However, a number of agencies have issued advisory statements on how they view cryptocurrencies.
In France, cryptos are largely unregulated. There are lots of talks going around the crypto regulations in the country and France had advised discussing this issue on G20.
East Asia and the Pacific
It is not a surprise that Japan is one of the most crypto-positive countries. Bitcoins are considered a legal means of payment. But still, banks cannot offer bitcoins to their customers but cannot hold them as well. The sector is left in the hands of fintech innovators. However, the exchange sector is regulated and states that Bitcoin can be used as a payment method for the purchase or rental of goods or provision of services by unspecified persons, that can be purchased from or sold to unspecified persons, and that is transferable via an electronic data processing system”.
Not every country in Asia has this kind of attitude towards the crypto-industry and they seem to be more cautious about this innovation. In Bangladesh, Nepal or Kyrgyzstan crypto trading is largely illegal.
Surprisingly or not, Asia’s biggest economy, even China has a rocky attitude towards crypto-currencies. The governor of the People’s Bank of China Zhou stated that the Chinese regulators are not recognizing virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, to be used for different purposes, for example like paper bills, coins, or credit cards. The Chinese government was somehow afraid of the bitcoin flow in the country, this is why they have imposed strict regulations. The main reasons for it are that bitcoin transactions are impossible to control and the government is not able to track the transactions, thus they do not have access to the information, where a large amount of money is going from the country.
Australia has to make a decision on how to control or balance and handle, on the one hand, blockchain technology, and on the other hand, speculative cryptocurrencies. The country has not imposed any kind of strict regulations. However, under the amendment which was made by AUSTRAC – to implement the program to mitigate the risk of money laundering as well as identify and verify the identity of the customers.
The Bitcoin situation in India pretty much looks like the situation in China. From its first appearance, bitcoin was very popular in the country and the government was even promoting this industry, but the circumstances change once they have made several announcements, regarding restricting its use. The main reason is that they want Indian money to stay in the country. A lot of people will spend money on it, only because it is trendy and the government will not be able to track, where money, generated in the country, goes.
African Countries
For some people, it might be surprising that many African countries are very actively involved in the crypto industry, despite the problems of electricity and advanced technologies. Nigeria, Zimbabwe, or South Africa are the most advanced countries in this case and their involvement in the financial market is crucial. Those countries are also giving hands to the investors because of the less oversight from the government over the crypto-industry.
Conclusion
As we have seen above, there are tones of different regulations or attitudes toward cryptocurrencies from different countries. The reasons might be caused due to the political, economical, or social circumstances which itself affect the financial market. It is vivid that countries that support implementing advanced technologies in their everyday lives are more or fewer supporters of digital coins. Some countries are extremely positive towards it and some of them are restricting, while most of them have regulations on cryptocurrencies. It is more likely probable, that once the general opinion will be agreed upon usage of the cryptocurrencies, countries which are limiting their exchange, might change their regulations. This is a matter of only several years because nobody would have imagined 10 years ago that today we would be talking about cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
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