Transaction, promotion of cryptocurrency illegal: Bangladesh Bank
Transactions with cryptocurrency is listed as crimes under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947, Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2012
Transactions with cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin as well as their promotion were illegal, said the Bangladesh Bank in a letter sent to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday.
In the letter, the Bangladesh Bank said, "We were informed that such virtual currencies are transacting through different exchange platforms. But these are not legal tender, so no one could financially claim cryptocurrency in Bangladesh."
Such virtual transactions are listed as crimes under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947, Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2012.
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On Wednesday, Kamrul Ahsan, additional deputy inspector general of the CID, told The Business Standard that transactions made through cryptocurrency would violate three laws – the Special Powers Act, Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and Anti-Corruption Law.
He came up with the comment in the wake of confusion created over the central bank's opinion that ownership, holding or transaction of cryptocurrency was not a crime.
In a letter sent to the CID on 18 May, the Bangladesh Bank made the opinion that created confusion about the legality of using cryptocurrency.
The central bank had issued a warning on 24 December, 2016 on their website asking people to refrain from trading in artificial currencies (such as Bitcoin).
At that time, it said in a statement that "transactions in virtual currency may violate anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws."
Till today, the country's central bank has not formulated any policy on cryptocurrency.
Moreover, in the recent times, there is talk among the government bodies about not rejecting cryptocurrency completely. For example, the ICT Division launched the National Blockchain Strategy in March 2020.
In their strategy paper, the ICT Division said $23 billion had been invested in blockchain startups since 2013.
