Chile’s Central Bank Considers Cryptocurrency Regulations

The president of Chile’s Central Bank, Mario Marcel, is thinking about regulating cryptocurrency in the nation so as to monitor danger, local news outlet El Economista announced Tuesday, May 15.

At the moment, Cryptocurrencies in Chile are not at considered as money or securities, but there are no laws set up that keep residents from trading crypto for goods and services.

During a forum of the Finance Commission of Deputies, Marcel said that “incorporating regulation will allow having a registry of participants in these activities and thus have information to monitor the associated risks.”

“These activities could be developed under more robust standards and mechanisms, especially in terms of market transparency, consumer protection, and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.”

By the end of March, Chilean crypto exchange Buda and Crypto MKT asked the Chilean Association from Banks (ABIF) to give a clear position on crypto and crypto trading after a few of their accounts were shut by many Chilean banks.

In mid-April, three Chilean crypto trades – Buda, Orionx, and Crypto MKT -went to an appeals court to protest this conclusion, which some as the banks saw as utilizing their power to curtail the digital money industry. Toward the end of April, Chile’s anti-monopoly court decided that Buda’s accounts must be revived at state bank Banco del Estado de Chile and Itau Corpbanca.