Georgia officials are now in discussions with industry representatives to finalize a bill designed to regulate coin trading, among other crypto-related activities. A top central bank official announced that it will be presented to Georgian society at the latest this fall.
Central Bank of Georgia Talks Crypto Regulation with Market Players
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) is fine-tuning a draft law designed to establish a legal framework for certain operations with cryptocurrency, with the help of interested parties from the region. Public and business officials are currently negotiating the new law, the bank’s vice governor Papuna Lezhava revealed, quoted by Sputnik Georgia. They said:
We are working on a bill regulating cryptocurrency, and it is now in the consideration stage with market participants. The final document will be made public either in the summer or fall.
The central bank official elaborated that the law would govern several crypto-related sectors at once. These include consumer protection and cryptocurrency trading. Its provisions will introduce rules for trading platforms such as digital asset exchanges. However, they are not concerned with crypto miners and their activities, Lezhava said.
Cryptocurrency mining became a popular business and alternative income source for many Georgians a few years back. A study by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) published in 2018 ranked Georgia second in the world in terms of the amount of electricity used to mint digital coins.
In April, NBG governor Koba Gwynetadze told Georgian business news portal Financial that the monetary authority was planning to regulate transactions in the southern Caucasus country’s crypto space. He revealed that companies in the industry can expect a licensing arrangement.
At the same time, the regulator intends to ban traditional financial institutions from providing crypto-related services. Gvenetadze also pointed out that the amendments the central bank is working on are in compliance with the requirements of the Intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF).
Do you expect Georgia to adopt bitcoin-friendly regulations and become a crypto hotspot? Tell us in the comments section below.
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