Belarus is not planning to legalize cryptocurrency

The National Bank of Belarus rejects the rumors that previously circulated in the local media. According to those rumors, republic’s President Alexander Lukashenko might legalize cryptocurrency or digital exchange trading within the newest laws on technological development. But the words of the unspecified representative of the central state financial regulator leave an impression that the authorities consider cryptocurrency legislation risky:

“It’s impossible to supervise cryptocurrency and trace its transactions, the situation could be influenced only in case of cryptocurrency-to-fiat conversion. But if it becomes known that the residents of Belarus participated in the money laundering, the country’s image could be harmed at the international scene”, tells the source to the BelaPAN regional outlet.

This means that the Republic of Belarus, apparently, will not become the cryptocurrency legalization pioneer in the Commonwealth of Independent States, as previously suggested by some financial observers, and it will not get ahead of Russia in this matter. In the latter country, the legislative and executive authorities often call cryptocurrencies “a pyramid scheme”, but then remember the words of the influential President about “unnecessary prohibitions” and on the avoidance of fintech gap in comparison with the Western countries; after that, they start to repeatedly promote blockchain.