Governments in Latin America are known for their very cool attitude towards cryptocurrencies. Primarily this is caused by the high inflation of national currencies of many countries of this continent. Most enterprising citizens saw in bitcoin a great means of salvation from inflation than the government is extremely dissatisfied. Crypto-currencies are officially or de facto prohibited in Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, and now they were joined by Colombia.

In Colombia, the first cryptocurrency exchange called Colbitex, which opened just two weeks ago, stopped working – probably due to legal problems with the cryptocurrency in the country.

Colbitex opened and closed

According to the website of bitcoin DiarioBitcoin, the closure is a temporary measure that will operate as long as the company and regulators do not determine the legal regime within which to operate the exchange.
Currently, the website Colbitex not working and users are redirected to the support page to submit a request for withdrawal. The financial supervision authority of the country of Colombia Superintendencia Financierade allows only transactions that have an equivalent Colombian pesos.

Because Bitcoin is not related to "real currency", it may not have the official exchange rate. On the support page Colbitex says that the regulator has not completely banned the use of Bitcoin in Colombia, and with Central Bank Banco de la República de Colombia released in may 2016 warning about the risks associated with using digital currencies.

Since the beginning of 2014 a similar warning was issued by several Central banks and financial regulators in different countries of the world.

Bitcoin is growing in Colombia

Exchange Colbitex gained popularity among the local population, fixing August 6 the transaction volume in the amount of 103 495 995 Colombian peso (34 528 us dollars).

Since its opening on July 25 of this year, Colbitex worked in "test mode", although its co-founder Roman Parra (Roman Parra) said earlier that the exchange meets all applicable legal, tax and commercial standards, and the test period is designed to ensure that customers familiar with the trade with Bitcoin. The company offered to the holders of Colombian peso exchange services bitcoin, with limit and market orders and stored in online wallets.

However, according to statistics from peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchanges, Local Bitcoins, the activity of exchange trade in the country has increased, and this is a good sign of increasing demand.

Difficulty growth of Bitcoin in South America

Parr also pointed out that the development of Bitcoin in Columbia is slower compared with neighbouring countries, such as Argentina and Venezuela, but he hopes to expand exchanges and its expansion into other markets.

In March of this year it was reported that in Venezuela "mining for bitcoins" were arrested two people, though perhaps arrest was linked to tax problems, and not directly with the mining. At the moment in Venezuela there is one current kitawala exchange Surbitcoin – although last month she was also temporarily closed.