The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is doubling-up its efforts towards forming legal amendments which shall prohibit all cryptocurrency peer-to-peer (P2P) in the European nation.

The ministry’s official announcement on the matter was on Telegram on July 2, stating that the new legislation will ban all P2P crypto exchange for individuals.

The authority attributed the move to the increasing cybercrime rate in the nation. Since January 2023, local prosecutors have halted the illicit activities of 27 citizens which were providing “illegal crypto exchange services.” To back up its statements, the Belarusian ministry cited that crypto P2P services are “in demand among fraudsters who cash out and convert stolen funds and transfer money to organizers or participants in criminal schemes.”

To eliminate the possibility of the occurrence of such activities, the ministry will disallow the use of the peer-to-peer mechanisms and will only allow them to exchange cryptocurrencies via crypto exchanges which are registered within the Belarus Hi-Tech Park (HTP), stating:

“The MFA is working on legislative innovations that prohibit crypto exchange transactions between individuals. For transparency and control, citizens will be allowed to conduct such financial transactions only through the HTP exchanges.”

Sources:

https://cryptopotato.com/belarus-pursues-clampdown-on-p2p-crypto-transactions-report/

https://cointelegraph.com/news/belarus-wants-to-ban-p2p-cryptocurrency-transactions

https://decrypt.co/147217/belarus-crypto-ban-p2p-transactions-fraud

https://t.me/pressmvd/8643