Latin American countries were on the lead during the expansion period of crypto. Now, they have also begun to adopt policies to protect their public from negative impacts of recession. The latest news is from Sunacrip, the Venezuelan crypto watchdog, which has shared new directives regarding crypto transactions and unauthorized crypto exchanges. The main aim of it is to prevent the suspicious transactions using crypto.
Various other countries have taken the same measures to ensure that they conform to the directives of international monetary organizations. Crypto’s use for illicit activity is no secret and various countries’ security and financial agencies have been working on establishing frameworks to reduce its misuse. Recently India also announced the near-completion of a program to document the policy regarding crypto.
Here is a brief overview of the document that Sunacrip released and its possible impacts on the Venezuelan crypto market.
Sunacrip moving towards tighter regulations for fintech
Venezuela has remained under US sanctions because of its state policies. Though it doesn’t always follow the directives of international organizations, it has complied to the directives set by FATF to prevent the misuse of crypto. Its watchdog organization, Sunacrip, will help implement the regulations to prevent crypto’s misuse.
The use of fintech platforms has made it easier for the users to perform transactions. But along with bringing ease, it has also created complications which Sunacrip aims to fight. It has issued a new providence that is aimed at dealing with these complications. It will be used to establish a mechanism that will ensure that all suspicious activities on crypto platforms are monitored.
Though crypto came with the aim to bring decentralization, it has been trapped in a difficult situation. It hasn’t been able to fight the growing demand for disclosing customer identity from government authorities. As in case of the document shared by Sunacrip, which has been signed by Joselit Rameriz, has directives regarding direct monitoring. The aim of this document is to work on implementing FATF directives regarding suspicious activity and terrorism financing.
Venezuela is not currently part of FATF due to international sanctions but it will implement these directives to make crypto transactions fair.
Affecting crypto adoption
The document from Sunacrip states that any unauthorized crypto exchange should alert the citizens and they should report it to authorities. The national financial intelligence will take the requisite steps to tackle the challenge of unauthorized exchanges. Also, it has brought the customers to a difficult situation. If they are found using or making transactions with unauthorized exchanges, they would have to face fine of about $15,000.
The changes from Sunacrip will affect the crypto business in the country because of the lack of registration from popular crypto exchanges. One of these is Binance which is known globally for its crypto services but hasn’t been authorized in Venezuela. Other popular crypto exchanges face the same problem. Thus, the lack of major crypto exchanges on the authorized list will affect the crypto market.
Sunacrip has been hard on various crypto exchanges as it revoked authorization of some major exchanges back in January. Also, it has continued to affect fintech experts as they haven’t been able to get funds for their projects. Crypto experts believe that it would be a too-difficult task for the Sunacrip to monitor crypto transactions. It would take tremendous resources for this job.
Conclusion
Venezuelan crypto watchdog has issued new directives regarding the control of crypto. The mentioned authority has prevented users from utilizing the services of unauthorized crypto exchanges for crypto transactions. If the users were found using unauthorized exchanges or other services, they will be penalized. Sunacrip might issue directives but it would be too hard for it to implement the new policy. It would take huge funds to set up a framework for this job.
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/sunacrip-tightens-control/