Belarus Wants to Ban P2P Cryptocurrency Trading

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry is working on a legal amendment to ban peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC).

Ministry on 2 July Issued An official announcement on Telegram about the new law that will ban P2P crypto exchanges for individuals.

Citing the high cybercrime rate in Belarus, the authority said that local prosecutors have suppressed the activity of 27 citizens providing “illegal crypto exchange services” since January 2023. Their total illegal revenue was approximately 22 million Belarusian rubles ($8.7 million).

The ministry argued that crypto P2P services are “in demand among fraudsters who cash in and convert stolen funds and transfer funds to organizers or participants in criminal schemes.”

To eliminate such illegal activity, the ministry will ban individuals from P2P and allow them to exchange crypto only through exchanges registered with the Belarus Hi-Tech Park (HTP). The regulator said:

“The MFA is working on legislative innovations that prohibit crypto exchange transactions between individuals. For the sake of transparency and control, citizens will be allowed to conduct such financial transactions only through HTP exchanges.

The authority also noted that it plans to implement a practice similar to the procedure for exchanging foreign currencies, which “will make it impossible to withdraw funds obtained from illegal activity.”

“Under such circumstances, it will become unprofitable for information technology fraudsters to operate in Belarus,” the ministry wrote.

In response to the news from Belarus, many cryptocurrency enthusiasts have questioned the government’s ability to ban P2P cryptocurrency trading. “Good luck getting it implemented,” said one crypto observer. Said on Twitter.

Connected: Banning crypto ‘may not be effective in the long run’ – IMF

P2P exchange is the core idea of ​​bitcoin, as anonymous BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in his white paper. According to bitcoin proponents like Jan3 CEO Samson Mow, banning P2P is not an easy task, if not impossible. The executive told Cointelegraph in June that many users in China still use P2P channels to exchange their crypto, despite the country banning all crypto transactions for users in 2021.

The latest news from Belarus is somewhat contrary to the legislation passed by Belarus in recent years. In 2022, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree confirming the country’s formal support for the free circulation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

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