MOSCOW: Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on
Monday that cryptocurrencies should be traded only by professional
investors, not in the mainstream.
“Professional market
participants should work with crypto-currencies, not ordinary people,”
Siluanov said in an interview with Rossiya 24, a Russian state TV
channel.
Russian authorities agreed in October to
regulate the cryptocurrency market and pledged to set out how this
regulation would work by the end of the year.
Bitcoin
BTC=BTSP, a well-known virtual currency which emerged in mid-2010, is
increasingly popular worldwide as it promises substantial profits. One
bitcoin last traded at around $14,200 BTC=BTSP, up from its initial
price of less than $1.
Israel to ban bitcoin firms:
Israel’s markets regulator will propose regulation to ban companies
based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel
Aviv Stock Exchange, Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel
Securities Authority (ISA) said on Monday.
Hauser told
the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA
board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing
and then the stock exchange bylaws would need to be amended.
“If
we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we
would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended,”
Hauser said, adding the ISA must find the appropriate regulation for
such companies.
Hauser did not identify any companies
that would be affected by his ban, but at least two firms listed on the
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) now describe digital currencies or the
technology behind them as essential to their business: Blockchain Mining
and Fantasy Network.
Shares of Blockchain, which on
Sunday changed its name from Natural Resources, have soared some 5,000
per cent in the past few months since it announced it would shift its
focus from mining for gold and iron to mining cryptocurrencies.
It was down 4.2pc in afternoon trading on Monday. Blockchain was not immediately available for comment.
