The British Treasury plans to introduce regulations that will cover Bitcoin and other digital currencies in late 2018. The agency is increasingly concerned about the possibility that the virtual currencies could be used in illegal activities like money laundering and tax evasion due to their growing popularity.
Under the planned legislation that is intended to cover the entire European Union (EU), cryptocurrency traders will be compelled to disclose their identities and report any suspicious activity that they may discover in virtual currency trading.
This move by the UK government could cause confusion among industry players as the majority of f exchanges in the country are already compliant with the existing know your customer (KML) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws.
State of the cryptocurrency market in Great Britain
The proposed regulation could be implemented by the British government immediately because of the booming digital currency market in the country. The continuous increase in their prices in the market, particularly Bitcoin, which has attracted a lot of people, who could be enticed to invest in the tokens due to their surging prices.
The absence of regulations in place to regulate the trading and use of the digital currencies can put the money that will be invested by the people at very high risk.
According to a spokesperson from the British Treasury, the new cryptocurrency regulation could be implemented by the end of 2018. This tentative date could still be changed, however, and the specific details of the proposed regulations are not yet determined as of the moment.
It is also expected that more digital currency-related laws will be introduced by different countries in the EU in the near future. It remains to be seen, however, if these expected regulations will have a major impact on the individual users.