The Belarusian foreign ministry is drafting amendments to the law to prohibit peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions involving Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, citing a high crime rate associated with cryptos.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Republic of Belarus issued an official announcement on Telegram on July 2 regarding new legislation prohibiting individuals from engaging in peer-to-peer crypto exchange.
The authority cited a high rate of cybercrime in Belarus, stating that 27 individuals providing “illegal crypto exchange services” have been arrested by local prosecutors since the beginning of the year. Their illicit earnings totaled 22 million Belarusian rubles ($8.7 million).
The foreign ministry argued that crypto P2P services are “in demand among fraudsters who cash out and convert stolen funds and transfer money to the organizers or participants of criminal schemes.”
To eradicate such illegal activity, the MFA will prohibit individuals from exchanging cryptocurrencies P2P and will only permit them to do so through exchanges registered with Belarus Hi-Tech Park (HTP). The governing body stated:
“The MFA is working on legislative innovations that prohibit crypto exchange transactions between individuals. For transparency and control, citizens will be allowed to conduct such financial transactions only through the HTP exchanges.”
Additionally, the authority stated that it intends to implement a practice comparable to the procedure for exchanging foreign currencies, which will make it “impossible to withdraw money obtained from illegal activity.”
“Under such conditions, information technology fraudsters will find it unprofitable to operate in Belarus,” the MFA wrote.
As a result of the news from Belarus, numerous crypto devotees have questioned the government’s ability to prohibit P2P cryptocurrency trading. “Good luck enforcing it,” a crypto observer on Twitter said.
According to Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper, the original concept behind Bitcoin was peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions. According to Bitcoin proponents such as Jan3 CEO Samson Mow, prohibiting P2P is complex, if not impossible.
The executive told Cointelegraph in June that despite the country’s prohibition on all crypto transactions for users in 2021, many users in China continue to exchange their crypto via peer-to-peer channels.
The most recent news from Belarus is at odds with the laws Belarus has enacted in recent years. In 2022, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree expressing the nation’s official support for the unrestricted circulation of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
