The first wave of Cryptocurrency regulation has arrived in the form of the Australian government issuing their latest regulation around the space, specifically under the AML and counter-terrorism laws.

A copy of the draft bill can be found here

As explained by the Australian government earlier this week;

"The bill will ... close a regulatory gap by bringing digital currency exchange providers under the remit of AUSTRAC; strengthen AUSTRAC's investigation and enforcement powers; increase police and customs officers' search and seizure powers at the border; and provide regulatory relief to industry through the deregulation of low-risk industry sectors."

In particular the draft bill highlights the specific penalties for operating a unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange - anyone found guilty of breaching this law would expect up to seven years in prison and or up to AUD $100,000 in fines with repeat offenders looking at up to AUD $400,000.

Philippines has passed regulation

The Philippines have just passed regulation requiring all exchanges operating to apply for a "Certificate of Registration" and register with the anti-laundering unit and also subject to "registration and annual fee services"

This move comes only a matter of months after officials for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expressed their interest to regulate all exchanges.

The BSP also said;

"The Bangko Sentral does not intend to endorse any [virtual currency], such as bitcoin, as a currency since it is neither issued or guaranteed by a central bank nor backed by any commodity. Rather, the BSP aims to regulate [virtual currencies] when used for delivery of financial services, particularly, for payments and remittances, which have material impact on anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT), consumer protection and financial stability."<

Credit

See the full report here

Looks like the heavy hand of the governments are starting to fall which means we're close.....

Hive account@crypto-kiwi