Cryptocurrency has experienced both supports and slams through its progressive move over the years. A review with its performance between 2018 and 2021, the space of three years has increased the volume of setbacks globally.
Though the year 2021 gave a great historic increase for the market performance of the entire crypto ecosystem, it also accounted for more slamming on digital assets. The number of countries or jurisdictions with restrictive laws on cryptocurrency doubles in 2021 compared to 2018.
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According to the Library of Congress (LOC), there are currently nine jurisdictions with an absolute ban on crypto, while 42 employ an implicit ban. The first report in 2018 shows that the statistics are up from 8 and 15 respectively.
As listed by LOC, the nine countries with an absolute ban on crypto include Oman, Qatar, Algeria, Egypt, China, Morocco, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Tunisia. China’s crypto ban in 2021 attracted the most attention among all the countries on the list. The Library of Congress (LOC) is the US Senate’s research library. Also, it acts as the country’s national library.
The LOC report specified its contextual definition for both an absolute ban and an implicit ban. According to the report, an absolute ban is defined as holding cryptocurrency or transactions, a criminal act.
On the other hand, an implicit ban prevents crypto exchanges, banks, or financial firms from engaging in crypto transactions or providing services in crypto.
Hope For Countries To Lift Ban On Cryptocurrency Sector
The gradual rise through the past three years in the jurisdictions banning and restrictions in cryptocurrency is quite alarming. Moreover, there is no visible drop as more governments are now reconsidering their crypto stance.
Besides the total of 51 jurisdictions that have a crypto ban, about 103 countries have enforced some strict laws and measures. These include the application of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combatting the Funding of Terrorism (CFT) laws. The number gives a triple increase compared to the 2018 value of 33 jurisdictions having such laws.
A similar move is the November ban on Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining from a Swedish financial regulatory body and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
The ban was because of the power requirement and environmental costs of operating the networks. However, Melanion Capital, a Paris-based firm, criticized the ban. The firm labeled the claims against mining as misinformation.
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Furthermore, Estonia’s neighbor to the Swedish European Union across the Baltic Sea is preparing to enforce AML/CFT rules by February. The application of the rules is expected to alter the meaning of virtual asset service providers. Also, it will introduce an implicit ban on Bitcoin and DeFi.
On its part, the Indian government scared its residents through the move of its lawmakers to ban crypto last year. Though the result was no outright ban, they meted out strict regulations on cryptocurrencies.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView.com