Belarus wants to ban P2P cryptocurrency transactions



The Belarusian Ministry of Overseas Affairs is engaged on authorized amendments prohibiting peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

On July 2, the ministry issued an official announcement on Telegram about new laws that will ban P2P crypto alternate for people.

The authority cited a excessive cybercrime charge in Belarus, stating that native prosecutors have suppressed the exercise of 27 residents offering “unlawful crypto alternate companies” since January 2023. Their whole unlawful revenues amounted to almost 22 million Belarusian rubles ($8.7 million).

The ministry argued that crypto P2P companies are “in demand amongst fraudsters who money out and convert stolen funds and switch cash to organizers or members in prison schemes.”

To get rid of such illicit exercise, the ministry will prohibit people from P2P and can solely permit them to alternate crypto by way of exchanges registered with Belarus Hello-Tech Park (HTP). The regulator acknowledged:

“The MFA is engaged on legislative improvements that prohibit crypto alternate transactions between people. For transparency and management, residents will likely be allowed to conduct such monetary transactions solely via the HTP exchanges.”

The authority additionally famous that it plans to implement a follow much like the process for exchanging foreign exchange, which is able to make it “inconceivable to withdraw cash obtained from criminality.”

“Beneath such circumstances, it’ll merely grow to be unprofitable for data know-how fraudsters to function in Belarus,” the ministry wrote.

In response to the information from Belarus, many cryptocurrency fanatics have questioned the federal government’s capability to ban P2P cryptocurrency buying and selling. “Good luck implementing it,” one crypto observer said on Twitter.

Associated: Banning crypto ‘may not be effective in the long run’ — IMF

P2P alternate is the unique concept of Bitcoin, as written by nameless BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto in its white paper. In line with Bitcoin advocates like Jan3 CEO Samson Mow, banning P2P shouldn’t be a simple job, if not inconceivable. The exec instructed Cointelegraph in June that many customers in China nonetheless use P2P channels to alternate their crypto regardless of the nation banning all crypto transactions for users in 2021.

The most recent information from Belarus is considerably opposite to laws Belarus has handed lately. In 2022, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree affirming the nation’s formal support of the free circulation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

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