After the Chilean Supreme Court sided with local banks on the OrionX exchange court case, the sentence set up a precedent that will allow banks to close accounts in case they cannot account for the identity of the owner of the funds. This does not only apply to cryptocurrency, but also to all other areas of finance.
The decision is a blow to the local crypto community, and also a pat on the back of Chilean banks. The president of Banco Santander Chile, Claudio Melandri, cheered the court ruling, as reported by Chilean news outlet La Tercera:
‘I am truly happy [about the court ruling], as there was a contradiction in there. I have nothing against the cryptocurrency industry, but us banks have the duty of knowing the origin and destination of the funds, and that was not the case in the crypto industry’.
However, Melandri was not closing all doors to the chance of the Chilean branch of Santander operating with cryptocurrencies: ‘We are here to do business, we don’t say no to anything. When it is clearly regulated, we will be pleased to operate with cryptocurrencies’.
According to statements to the same media outlet from Felipe Larraín, Chilean Minister of Finance, the country is making advancements on regulation:
‘We are working with the Central Bank, in the frame of the Council for Financial Stability and also the Minister of Finance, towards regulating cryptocurrencies. We also have the whole FinTech topic, regarding new technologies coming into financial markets, and cryptocurrencies are just one of its manifestations’.
Larraín excused the delay in regulation by saying that ‘we do not have a magic wand, as all countries in the world are seeking for the best solutions to regulate this new phenomenon'.
Perhaps, the aggressive judicial pressure combined with slow government action will bring back the hashtag #chilequierecrypto, which went viral back in the middle of 2018, when local banks started the court war against cryptocurrency exchanges.