G20 to Impose Standardized AML Monitoring for Crypto

Bitcoin is currently bullish. And this is good news considering that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were dealing with bears in the past months. What made Bitcoin almost hit $7,800 is the fact that regulatory clarity is slowly becoming a reality.

In fact, there are countries such as Japan and South Korea that have slowly moved towards regulating the industry. Japan created rules that will favor crypto investors. Here, crypto exchanges are going to be subjected to stricter rules before they can operate. As for South Korea, its regulators agreed that it should apply G20’s unified crypto rules.

Cryptos Are Not a Threat

If you will ask G20, cryptocurrencies are not seen as a threat to the global financial system. Earlier this month, Financial Stability Board issued a press release that says the same thing about cryptocurrencies. On July 22, G20 members declared that it believes that cryptocurrencies and underlying technologies can significantly benefit different sectors in the global economy.

In fact, according to experts, blockchain technology presents feasible solutions that can help in different global business processes. An excerpt from the communiqué mentioned that “Crypto-assets do, however, raise issues with respect to consumer and investor protection, market integrity, tax evasion, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Crypto-assets lack key attributes of sovereign currencies. While crypto-assets do not at this point pose a global financial stability risk, we remain vigilant”.

AML Monitoring Standardization

Earlier this year, Japan has called on the G20 in order to look into the use of cryptocurrency in illegal activities such as money laundering as well as terrorist financing. And the good news is that the G20 is currently taking serious steps towards this goal.

According to the communiqué, “We the G20 welcome updates provided by the FSB and the SSBs and look forward to their future work to monitor the potential risks of crypto-assets and to assess multilateral responses as needed. We reiterate our March commitments related to the implementation of the FATF standards, and we ask the FATF to clarify in October 2018 how its standards apply to crypto assets”.

Regulatory Changes and Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin was struggling last month. In fact, since the start of 2018, Bitcoin along with other cryptocurrencies struggled after regulators made the necessary changes. However, did the market finally realized that this is a must in order to have another bull run for this year? There are even some experts that suggest Bitcoin is going to surpass its all-time high last December.

US SEC has considered both Bitcoin and Ethereum not to be securities. And this is good news considering the number of investors that are worried that rules and regulations regarding stocks can also be applied to these cryptos.

And after G20’s statement regarding the crypto market, does it mean that we can expect Bitcoin to continue pushing and even go close or even surpass $8,000? Could this be a sign of good things to come? Also, will other countries decide to simply regulate cryptos rather than impose a ban on the industry? These are some things that are left to be seen.