PR: Most Notable Bitcoin Regulation Updates so far ⋆ ZyCrypto

It is clear that we are living in the times of the turmoil around the cryptocurrencies and their various applications. The legal opinion about cryptos, the attitudes of the governments, and the rate of adoption seem to change quite a lot, which in its turn leads to an even higher volatility on the cryptocurrency market. Today we will take a look at the timeline of the most notable bitcoin regulations, the ones that are definite and here to stay.

 The article initially appeared on the Norwegian website Casinopånett.eu, and you can access it be following this link.

March 18, 2013 – FinCEN guidelines

While this is definitely not the most important date in the bitcoin regulation, it may actually be the first one the world has seen. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network aka FinCEN has publicly announced the guidelines and recommendations for using the virtual currencies. Hence, the first step towards giving the cryptocurrencies a more legal face has been made.

March 24, 2014 – Bitcoin is a property

A year after the guidelines were issued, the Internal Revenue Service has started taking a look at the Bitcoin and the way it could have been taxed. The Bitcoin has been seen by the IRS as property, at least for the taxation purposes.

August 08, 2015 – BitLicense

Right after an activity becomes taxed, it gets licensed too. The state of New York has launched a BitLicense, a certain business authorisation for dealing virtual currencies. As a result, many crypto exchanges had to abandon operations within the state.

August 03, 2016 – UKGC gives green light on BTC payments

We all know that the iGaming (online gambling) industry is enormous and a large part of the cryptocurrency transactions have been attributed to gambling for years. While many countries were thinking about the ways bitcoin gambling could be stopped, casinopånett.eu website reported on the 3rd of August that United Kingdom Gambling Commission has allowed all of the bitcoin casinos to apply for the license and all of the UKGC regulated casinos to actually accept deposits in cryptocurrencies.

April 01, 2017 – Japan makes cryptos legal

While some people could actually think that it was a joke (because of the timing), there was no humour in the announcement for the Japanese authorities. The government has declared that the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are prepaid payment instruments and are a subject to AML and KYC procedures.

January 31, 2018 – Facebook bans crypto ads

While one can argue that this is not really a regulatory issue as it is coming from a privately held company, the impact on the whole industry has been huge. The world’s largest social network and one of the largest advertising channels has declared that cryptocurrency and ICO ads will no longer be permitted.

 There will certainly be quite a year updates in the regulation until 2140 (the date when the last bitcoin block will be mined), however, we are hoping that the governments will act not only in the best interest of the current financial system, but also in the best interest of their country’s population.

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