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 might ban P2P crypto alternate for people.
The authority cited a excessive cybercrime fee 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 practically 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 individuals in prison schemes.”
To eradicate such illicit exercise, the ministry will prohibit people from P2P and can solely enable them to alternate crypto through 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 probably be allowed to conduct such monetary transactions solely by the HTP exchanges.”
The authority additionally famous that it plans to implement a follow comparable to the process for exchanging foreign currency, which can make it “unimaginable to withdraw cash obtained from criminality.”
“Underneath such circumstances, it’ll merely change into 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 means to ban P2P cryptocurrency buying and selling. “Good luck imposing it,” one crypto observer said on Twitter.
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P2P alternate is the unique concept of Bitcoin, as written by nameless BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto in its white paper. In accordance to Bitcoin advocates like Jan3 CEO Samson Mow, banning P2P will not be a simple process, if not unimaginable. The exec advised 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 newest 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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