The UK Parliament has called for equating crypto with gambling
According to lawmakers, crypto-currencies are more consistent with gambling than financial services, which is confirmed by data on the behaviour of their owners.
Reuters reported.
"We recommend that the Government regulates retail trading and investment activity in unbacked crypto-assets as gambling rather than as a financial service, consistent with its stated principle of 'same risk, same regulatory outcome'," the report said.
The Committee's statement was criticized by some market participants.
In particular, the industry organization CryptoUK stated that it strongly disagreed with equating the crypto sector with gambling.
"We are both concerned and disappointed by these claims which are unhelpful, false, fundamentally flawed and unsubstantiated. The statement fails to reflect the true nature, purpose and potential of the crypto industry," the statement said.
According to official data, about 10% of British adults have ever owned crypto-assets. The UK intends to become a global centre of crypto-currencies and blockchain technology. Despite this, the Parliament's members believe that this industry has many risks.
"The events of 2022 have highlighted the risks posed to consumers by the crypto-asset industry, large parts of which remain a wild west," said Harriett Baldwin, Chair of the Treasury Committee.
According to Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, UK taxpayers will have to separately report crypto-assets on their tax forms in a move that is expected to raise an extra GBP 10 million (USD 12 million) per year for the public purse.
Also earlier, it became known that the European Union adopted the law on the regulation of crypto-currencies (MiCA)
The regulation applies to all EU countries and can be supported by other states (in particular, Ukraine promised to join).
The new rules include:
▪️ Licensing of all crypto market participants.
▪️ Control of stablecoin collateral.
▪️ Tracking all transactions by analogy with Fiat, including using non-custodial wallets.
In November 2014 the National Bank of Ukraine made a statement regarding the legal regime of bitcoin in the country. It noted that the use of bitcoins is associated with increased risks due to anonymity and decentralized operations. This area is attractive for illegal actions, including: money laundering obtained by criminal means, or for terrorism financing. On the territory of Ukraine, the only legal monetary unit is Hryvnia, the issue and circulation of other monetary units as means of payment, and the use of monetary surrogates is prohibited.
On September 8, 2021, The Verkhovna Rada legalized virtual assets, which allowed owners of virtual assets to legally exchange and declare them. The Law was also supposed to allow foreign crypto companies to register blockchain businesses in Ukraine.
On March 15, 2022, the President of Ukraine signed the Law of Ukraine "On Virtual Assets" No. 2074-IX dated 17.02.2022, that will finally come into force only after the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine on Peculiarities of Taxation of Transactions with Virtual Assets" comes into force.
As of the beginning of May 2023, the Law was not in force.