New Regulations from Canada to Vietnam

The recent regulations rolled out across Western and Eastern countries do not seem to be letting up in the light of new issues.

Canadian Banks Impose Bans

Last month, the Canadian bank Toronto Dominion enacted a policy that would prevent their customers from buying cryptocurrencies using their services.

Another Canadian bank, the Royal Bank of Canada, also announced that it would begin to restrict the number of transactions involving cryptocurrencies.

Now the Bank of Montreal follows suit.

The bank, which is under the BMO Financial Group, just recently announced that their customers would not be able to use their debit and credit cards for the purposes of trading in (or with) cryptocurrencies.

This is could be seen as bad news for new and existing investors in cryptocurrencies, as their options will now be severely limited.

This has not stopped the traders, however. When one door closes, another one opens.

LocalBitcoins, which is a local P2P platform, allows for cryptocurrency transactions and has as a result of the bank ban increased their trades significantly - from $1.2 to $7.2 in just three weeks.

As with the recent bans imposed by social media platforms on the advertisement of cryptocurrencies, some investors even see the bank ban as a good thing.

Given that the whole philosophy behind cryptocurrencies is predicated on the fact that the current bank system is flawed, many welcome the ban as an opportunity.

By banning cryptocurrency transactions, banks are giving the investors one more reason not to use the traditional system to conduct business.

Skeptics of these new ways of doing business, as the traders do with LocalBitcoins, say that it will lead to disaster due to security concerns.

These concerns do not seem to phase Canadian cryptocurrency traders in the slightest, however.

Crypto-Scam in Vietnam Causes Trouble

Canada is not the only country recently taking a stricter stance on the cryptocurrency market.

Vietnam has recently experienced a massive case of fraud involving cryptocurrencies, and have as a result announced that Vietnamese traders should be wary.

As a result of this case, the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Public Securities have been told by the Prime Minister to impose stricter regulations on cryptocurrency trading.

The official website of the Vietnamese released a statement that said:

“Cryptocurrency investment and trading and raising money through initial coin offerings are evolving in a more complicated manner”

In the light of the recent scam, which is thought to involve the company Modern Tech JSC, the police authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have been put on alert.

Le Dong Phong, the chief of police in Ho Chi Minh City, made the following statement:

“All cryptocurrencies and transactions in cryptocurrencies are illegal in Vietnam. We are gathering information about the case, but officially we haven’t launched an investigation until we receive accusations from any of the alleged victims”

The Vietnamese banks have now been asked not to facilitate any further transactions involving cryptocurrencies.

What should be done?

What do you think can be done to prevent scams in the cryptocurrency markets? Do you think the restrictions imposed by Canada and Vietnam is the right response?

Leave your opinion in the comments below!