The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belarus is working round the clock on legal amendments that would prohibit peer-to-peer transactions in certain cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. On the 2nd of July, the ministry put out an official announcement on Telegram about the new legislation that would ban P2P crypto exchange for individuals.
The authority further cited a high rate of cybercrime in the country, stating that the local prosecutors had managed to suppress the activity of around 27 citizens providing illegal crypto exchange services since January 2023. The total illegal revenues had a total amount of 22 million Belarusian rubles. The ministry went on to argue that the crypto P2P services were in demand amongst the fraudsters who would first cash out and then convert the stolen funds and transfer money to the organizers or participants in multiple criminal schemes.
Belarus Government Looking To Shut Down Certain P2P Cryptocurrency Transactions
In order to eliminate such illicit activity, the ministry in Belarus will be prohibiting individuals from P2P and will only allow them to exchange cryptocurrency via exchanges that were registered with Belarus Hi-Tech Park. The regulator mentioned that the MFA was working on legislative innovations that would prohibit crypto exchange transactions between individuals. For both transparency and control, the citizens would also be allowed to conduct such financial transactions only through the HTP exchanges.
The Belarus government also noted that it had plans of implementing a similar practice for exchanging foreign currencies, which would make it almost impossible to withdraw money that was obtained through illegal activity. The ministry wrote that under such conditions, it would become too unprofitable for the information technology fraudsters to operate in the country.
