Tel Aviv Stock Exchange announces plan to regulate cryptocurrencies
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) on Tuesday published a draft plan to regulate cryptocurrencies, saying the plan's implementation “will facilitate the development and advancement of the Israeli capital market and encourage innovation and competition.”
The draft was released for “public comments for approval of the expansion of the authorized activities" which will permit "Non-Banking Members (NBMs) to allow their customers to trade in cryptocurrency,” according to TASE.
According to TASE, the regulation of cryptocurrencies – both now and in the future would – would “mitigate the various risks (operational, legal, cyber and other) that are inherent in Cryptocurrency activity.”
The announcement this week signals an international trend toward increased regulation of cryptocurrencies. While current regulations are rather limited, financial regulators around the world have indicated their intentions to significantly ramp up such regulation.
Earlier this week, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that it was “critical to put in place a strong regulatory framework "for cryptocurrencies, but emphasized that the U.S. is not suggesting an outright ban on crypto activities."
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva, however, did go so far as to suggest the possibility of banning cryptocurrencies altogether.
“There has to be a very strong push for regulation,” Georgieva said. “If regulation fails, if you’re slow to do it, then we should not take off the table banning those assets, because they may create financial stability risk.”
In China, the mining and trading of cryptocurrency was banned in September of 2021, several months after it expanded public testing of the digital renminbi (RMB), the Central Bank’s digital currency. According to the IMF, China has the world’s second largest economy after the U.S.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
