“Hong Kong’s New Law On Crypto Exchange Regulation”
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has established a new regulatory framework that allows crypto exchanges to opt-in to be licensed and regulated. Starting Wednesday, centralized trading platforms can apply for a license, providing they meet certain requirements including adequate measures for the safe custody of assets, insurance, hot and cold wallets, and private key management. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published a new regulatory framework for crypto exchanges on Wednesday. CEO Ashley Alder explained that the commission met with a number of crypto exchange operators after unveiling a conceptual framework that could be used to
regulate crypto exchanges last year.
“New Russian Allows Authorities To Confiscate Crypto From Citizens”
Russian authorities are planning to bring a legal structure that will allow them to confiscate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, RBC reported on Thursday. Citing anonymous sources, the publication detailed that the initiative will involve the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosfinmonitoring, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee, the Justice Ministry, the FSB, the Federal Customs Service, and the Federal Security Service, along with the participation of the country’s Supreme Court. The agencies are aiming to bring the proposal
by the end of 2021.
“Indian Govt Mulling Over Crypto Regulation”
State Bank of India’s (SBI) Chairman, Rajnish Kumar, has reportedly favoured the regulation of cryptocurrency in the country—a long debated issue. This was during a recent interview to a newswire agency, while attending International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C., along with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This statement comes in the backdrop of a draft bill ‘Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019’, which was submitted to the Finance Ministry in February. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear writ petitions relating to this bill in January 2020 and is also addressing the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) banking
restriction on the crypto industry.
“China Does U-turn On Crypto Mining Ban”
More than six months after the China National Development and Reform Commission proposed to categorize bitcoin mining as an industry to be phased out from the country, it appears the agency has now scrapped that plan. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a top-level economic planning agency under China’s State Council, published a finalized new Catalog for Guiding Industry Restructuring on Wednesday that will take effect from Jan 1, 2020. In the final version, which will replace the current one published in 2011, the agency has removed bitcoin mining or other virtual currency mining activities from the initially proposed category of industries that should be eliminated from China. Description related to virtual currency or bitcoin mining can’t be
found in the finalized catalog.