Woody Allen once said the world is divided into two groups of people: good and bad. There is a part of me that feels I could make the same argument in regards to the cryptocurrency market. Cryptocurrencies, in general, are both good and bad. For the most part, we’ve seen a lot of good come out of the cryptocurrency market, which has caused the vast majority of the world to forget about the downside to the market. Or, we simply choose to ignore the various discussions happening, like the topic of cryptocurrency regulation.
There’s no denying that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have seen a meteoric rise both this year and last year. However, a great number of people have started to express concern over the lack of regulation in the cryptocurrency market. That’s why a number of countries are now looking into cryptocurrency regulation, with the United Kingdom being the latest.
For those who don’t know, the cryptocurrency market acts without a central regulatory body and it allows users to make anonymous payments.
Prime Minister Theresa May recently announced that the UK, which is composed of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, is planning to start regulating cryptocurrencies. The reason? Both Theresa May and Philip Hammond, chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that the UK wants to introduce new rules due to the risks involved in the market. Further, the Prime Minister said that she believes that the cryptocurrency market will become structurally important in the country’s financial markets, but before this happens, the market needs to have more regulation.
While we are still unclear as to what these regulations will be and how they will affect the current marketplace, we do know that the UK is hoping to roll out these new rules before Bitcoin takes on a massive share of world trade. Personally, I think it will be interesting to see if other countries make a similar announcement now that they know that the UK is playing with the idea of more regulation. What do you think? Do you think cryptocurrencies are fine the way they are?