Analysis of the regulation of cryptocurrency in world markets in early 2018

The critical issue of the regulation of cryptocurrency at the state level in different countries made significant changes in the new year. Briefly go through the main ones.

United States

Steve Paikin (SEC Co-Head): “This is the first time that a commission has requested a recipient's search for fraud in ICO. We will use all our tools and means to protect investors from those who commit fraudulent activities in the digital securities market ".

The United States has stepped up its efforts to combat ICO by freezing AriseCoin’s assets. This is the first time that the US government seized the assets of ICO, which, in their opinion, are fraudulent.

And on January 30, it was announced that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against Tether on December 6, which releases the widely sold USDT Tether coin and claims that it is pegged to the dollar. Donated for USDT Tether and Bitfinex with Poloniex.
In general, the United States is still deciding how to classify cryptocurrencies. It has not yet been decided whether to qualify certain cryptocurrencies as securities.

As for the sphere outside of government regulation, Facebook unexpectedly banned cryptocurrency-related advertisements due to concerns that the company calls "financial products and services, often associated with misleading or deceptive advertising practices."

The official statements of the American agencies remained the same:

• The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) did not approve any exchange products (for example, ETFs) that have cryptocurrency or other assets associated with blockchain technologies for listing or trading. At the moment, the SEC has not officially registered any ICO.
• The CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) identified Bitcoin as a highly dangerous threat and announced that it is using interstate fraud and speculation, and urgent regulation of commodity futures tied directly to Bitcoin is necessary.
• The IRS (Tax Administration) ruled that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are treated for taxation as property, not currency. Although some exchanges can correctly draw up the “Form 1099”, users themselves remain responsible for accounting for profits and paying taxes on cryptocurrencies, since Cryptocurrency transactions generate either short-term or long-term capital gains or losses and must be properly documented.

South Korea

In South Korea, cryptocurrency is going to be legalized and more strictly regulated, rather than banned directly. This statement follows reports in early February that the country admits the possibility of stopping trade due to massive tax evasion. The government plans to tighten regulation and fight illegal practices for the most part in this area.

The process of self-regulation of the situation began with the fact that the largest cryptocurrency exchangers came together to form the Korean Blockchain Association (KBA), which was already launched on January 26th. These steps are crucial for the long-term success of cryptocurrencies after adverse rumors. In general, like the Chinese, the South Koreans still have mixed opinions about government plans, but the changes that have begun are a positive development for the industry.

Russia

The final version of the draft law on the regulation of cryptocurrency, according to the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, should be prepared in the first half of the year.

The bill will define cryptocurrency, mining, tokens and ICO. As clarified by Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev, the draft law is mainly concerned with the ICO, and the rules for the circulation of cryptocurrencies will be established somewhat later.

Anton Siluanov (Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation): “I look at the draft law, it is very framework. In fact, as in the textbook, they give a description of the terminology and everything. It seems to me that the law should provide for the regulation of the activity that we are currently considering. It should be a full-fledged law I think that here it is necessary to work out a much deeper theme of the regulatory framework and a much deeper approach to this law. "

China

Different moods have been coming in from China for a long time. At the end of January, there were repeated reports that China would lift the ban imposed on ICO, and already on February 5 - that radical plans could be implemented to ban all cryptocurrency trading with website blocking, even indirectly related to ICO, including foreign ones. Earlier, a similar ban has already been introduced to block the presence of sites such as Facebook and Google in the country, and it can be extremely effective.

A report dated February 4 from Xinhua News Service (Xinhua) states that the authorities are beginning to "ban all commercial affairs, including blocking both trading and corporate cryptocurrency websites." China still represents a significant part of the global cryptocurrency market, and complete blocking will have irreversible negative consequences.

Japan

Probably, in Japan, significant additional regulation can be expected very soon. On January 28, it was reported that Coincheck (a large Japanese cryptocurrency exchange) was hacked, as a result of which funds worth more than $ 500 million were lost. Officials at the Ministry of Finance of Japan said that the country would conduct inspections, and cryptocurrency would become a problem at the next G-20 meeting.

David Moscovitz (Indorse Pte): “The latest theft will have two immediate effects: more regulation by the authorities over the exchanges and greater recognition of the advantages offered by decentralized trading methods.”

European Union

The European Union only continues to talk about the need for regulation, without providing details or updates.

What's next?

It is clearly seen that 2018 will be a year of significant additional regulation in the crypto community, and where and how this will happen - can significantly affect the price of the currency. Recently, the value of most currencies has declined markedly, but this is not necessarily associated with regulatory changes, and appropriate sound regulation on a national scale can be beneficial for the health of the cloud money ecosystem.