Kazakhstan to Implement Financial Monitoring on Local Cryptocurrency Businesses: Report

The government of Kazakhstan reportedly plans to put local companies working with digital assets under its regulatory scope. According to a proposed bill, those entities will have to give detailed information about their crypto operations to the country’s financial watchdogs to prove they have no connections to money-laundering schemes.

Kazakhstan May Tighten Its Crypto Rules

As reported by the local media Sputnik, the National Parliament of Kazakhstan passed a bill to make crypto-related businesses a subject of an additional financial audit. The politicians also proposed that the Financial Monitoring Agency should have more power and responsibilities.

Olga Perepechin – a member of the Parliament – noted that the move aims to reduce the risks of money laundering and terrorism financing. Currently, individuals and companies dealing with digital assets in the Asian state are outside financial monitoring, which makes crypto transactions attractive to criminals:

“This leads to the spread of crimes in the field of money laundering and terrorism financing, including the shadow economy. It stimulates bad actors to use virtual assets in settlements.”

Nevertheless, the President of the country – Kassym-Jomart Tokayev – will have the final word on whether this legislation becomes official.

Kazakhstan is well-known among the digital asset space as being one of the leaders in cryptocurrency mining. It accounts for 18.1% of the global hashrate, placing it in the second position just after the US. Shortly after China imposed its crackdown on bitcoin mining, the States became the undisputed leader, responsible for over 35% of the global share.

Kazakhstani Banks Can Process Crypto Purchases

As CryptoPotato reported a few months ago, the ruling body of Kazakhstan enabled banking institutions to provide digital asset services to their customers. More specifically, the government authorized banks to open accounts for transactions with bitcoin and some altcoins.

Back then, Sergey Putra – an executive from the Data Center Industry – opined that the initiative marked a step towards a wider cryptocurrency adoption for the country. He touched upon the importance of the digital asset industry – a market which Kazakhstan should not ignore:

“It is billions of dollars in daily turnover around the world. And even if Kazakhstan takes some fraction of a percent, this is serious money that will come to Kazakhstan in the form of investments. It will remain here in the form of taxes, in the form of jobs, and salaries. This is a very large industry, which Kazakhstan still bypasses.”

The project will last only 12 months, after which the government will decide whether to extend it.