Regulation for cryptocurrencies
2017 was the year of ICOs and we saw many anonymous startups around the world that started to raise money. This outbreak of ICOs, created waves of concern and many regulators in different countries thought about regulation and rules for cryptocurrencies and especially ICOs.
2018 can be called the year of regulation and we can see different countries are enforcing laws about cryptos and ICOs around the world. Some countries like China are very strict towards cryptocurrency but some others like Japan and Switzerland are very friendly and most of other countries are in between.
Cryptocurrencies can be used for money laundering and terrorist actions very easily because this industry is anonymous and decentralized. Terrorist organizations can raise money in ICOs because unlike IPOs, theres not any clear rules and regulations and everybody can misuse it.  Most active traders and investors believe in some regulations in this market because there a lot of hacking and fraud activities. On the other hand, when the market is too regulated, other problems will be emerged. The most attractive feature of cryptocurrencies is the decentralized nature of them, but regulation can change this market to centralized market, then there will be no difference between cryptocurrency and fiat money.  People love cryptos because they dont pay tax for them and then, they make more profit but when regulation is talked, tax will come back, unavoidably. People who are in favor of regulations for cryptos believe this process will attract a lot of investors in long run and it causes crypto prices to increase more and more.
On the other hand, others think that regulations will destroy this market and they refer to the events in 2018, whenever regulation was discussed, the market was red and there was drop in cryptos prices. They believe regulation is against this new market.
Governments look at this issue very differently, some countries like Singapore are the center of ICOs and as mentioned in Switzerland, there many blockchain companies like Ethereum Foundation. In USA, some people consider cryptos as stocks, some others consider them as commodity and even some people consider them as properties.
Theres a huge confusion in this new market and some people look at it as opportunity but others see it as a threat. It seems any agreement between countries can be very useful but this consent needs a lot of discussions and dialogues between different parties. Bitcoin is not a temporary trend and it is around for about 9 years, now. Then we are facing an ever-growing market and technology and this market will hit one trillion dollar soon. Up to now, the market was not so big and many governments were oblivious about it. Now, it is different and the market is growing fast. Below, policies of some countries about cryptocurrency can be seen: China: In this country, cryptocurrency is forbidden and exchanges cant provide any services for cryptos trading.
Iran: like China, cryptocurrency is forbidden and its trade in exchanges is not legal.
USA: Cryptos are not legal money and rules related to exchanges are different from state to state.
Japan: More than half of bitcoin trade is inside this country. People can use cryptocurrencies in Japan and it is legal.
EU: Cryptocurrencies are not formal money and every member should avoid any intervention in creating cryptos. Around 4 percent of crypto trade is done in euro.
South Korea: Crypto trade is not illegal but government supervises it.
Nigeria: Cryptocurrencies are illegal in Nigeria.
South Africa: Cryptos are illegal.
India: Cryptos are not illegal but government has warned people about it.
Saudi Arabia: Cryptos are not illegal but Saudi Government has warned people about danger and volatility of cryptos.
Jordan: It is legal.
Russia: Exchanges are banned by government and officials have made contradictory statements about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
These were some examples and as you can see, there`s no agreement among regulators around the world. Any globally agreement needs a lot of cooperation from different countries, before that, there are a lot of issues for research in this field and regulators should know more about cryptocurrencies.
