IMF: 100% crypto will be regulated

It is a matter of time that the crypto market be regulated by national governments. This was made clear by the words of the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde.

"It is inevitable. This is an area in which we obviously need international regulation and proper supervision," Lagarde told CNN.

"There may well be signs of dark activity (in crypto)," she added at the World Government Summit, held at the weekend in Dubai.

In the words of one of the most influential women in the world, the IMF is actively seeking to prevent the use of virtual currency for money laundering and terrorist financing.

According to her, regulators should focus not on stocks, but on activities - who does what, and whether they are all properly licensed and effectively regulated.

For the first time, the IMF does not talk about the need to regulate crypto. Earlier this year, institution spokeswoman Gary Rice said there was a need for "better international discussion and co-operation between regulators."

"When the price of an asset rises rapidly, a risk accumulates, especially when market participants have borrowed money to buy it. It is important for people to be aware of this and to take the necessary risk management measures, "said Rice, quoted by Bloomberg.

Since the Bitcoin appeared in the white world for the first time in 2009, the virtual currency market operates in a vacuum - there is neither regulation nor control. In other words, no one is responsible for anything. According to some, this is the very essence of decentralization, but in others, it is a channel for money laundering, terrorist financing, speculation, and fraud.

Central banks and governments around the world definitely share the second opinion, with no central bank or finance ministry in the world last year to warn investors of the crypto market's turbid water.

Warnings have slowly grown into concrete actions, and late last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation have begun to pursue potential frauds through ICO.

ICO procedures have also come under attack by regulators in China and South Korea. Subsequently, the Chinese authorities completely blacked out the trade in virtual currencies, while their South Korean counterparts began to impose strict rules, including a ban on anonymous trading in virtual currencies.

India also talks about banning virtual currencies, as authorities in the country are making it clear that they are not looking good at this market.

What's more, more than 100,000 Indian banquet investors have received tax returns for unpaid levies on profits generated by crypto.

Moreover, the European Union announced last year that it had a political agreement on the draft amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Fraud Directive. If these changes are accepted, all market intermediaries, such as exchanges and online portfolios, will have the same obligations as banks and other financial institutions, or in other words, anonymous trade, payments, and possession of virtual currencies will remain in the past.

This will also interrupt the ICO collection procedures, as it is primarily in the EU that recourse to this new way to raise investment.

About 40% of ICO procedures over the last 3 years have been conducted by companies based in the EU, according to Atomico venture capital firms.

Against this background, Facebook has banned ICO platforms and virtual currency advertising, and most banks around the world have begun to show their customers that they do not tolerate crypto.

For example, investing in virtual credit card currencies is no longer allowed.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, most representatives of national governments around the world also pointed out that the regulation of the crypto-market is something that will happen.

"We support the finite industry, we support innovation, but we want to make sure that all financial markets are safe and not used for fraud," said US Finance Minister Steven Munchin.

British Prime Minister Teresa May also pointed out that her cabinet looks "very serious" on crypto "because of the ways they are used, particularly by criminals."

Since last year, the Bitcoin reached a record price of nearly $ 20,000, the situation has changed in 2018. The Bitcoin lost more than half of its value, falling to less than $ 10,000.

This dragged down the entire crypto market as all publicly traded virtual currencies declined dramatically over their price levels. The total market capitalization of all publicly traded crypto lows reached nearly $ 420 billion.

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