Since last year, cases of illegal "mining", trading and using cryptocurrency have emerged in an endless stream around the world, and the imperfections and risks of cryptocurrency trading market have become increasingly prominent. Recently, multinational financial regulators have successively issued policies to strengthen the supervision of cryptocurrency, and the price of cryptocurrency has plummeted.
The bitcoin market has exploded.
Different from traditional currency, Bitcoin is actually an encrypted data based on blockchain technology. Since last year, the price of cryptocurrency has been rising all over the world, especially in June 5438+February last year, the first bitcoin futures product was officially traded in the United States, which gave birth to the global investment boom of digital cryptocurrency, and the transaction volume and price of a number of digital cryptocurrencies soared. As a representative of cryptocurrency, the price of bitcoin soared more than ten times in a year, and its market value once surpassed well-known listed companies such as Disney and General Electric.
"Crazy" bitcoin is not only the new favorite of investors, but also the hardest hit area for Internet hackers.
Based on the uncontrolled, relatively anonymous and untraceable characteristics of the government, Bitcoin has repeatedly exposed cases of malicious transactions, zombie virus "mining" and illegal profits in recent years. At the same time, hacker attacks have occurred frequently, bitcoin prices have soared and plummeted, and investor protection is still in a regulatory vacuum.
Who will supervise and how to supervise cryptocurrency has become a difficult problem for governments all over the world. At present, cryptocurrency transactions are anonymous, and it is difficult for regulators to collect statistical data to monitor their operation; For cross-border cryptocurrency transactions, countries also lack effective supervision means; Decentralized cryptocurrency also conflicts with the current centralized supervision framework, which brings new difficulties to supervision.
Recently, Brass, head of the investment management department of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), published an open letter, listing several reasons why the SEC has repeatedly refused to trade funds in digital cryptocurrency exchanges, including valuation risk, insufficient liquidity, unavoidable arbitrage risk, potential market manipulation and fraud risk.
At present, only Tunisia, Senegal and other countries have developed digital currency based on cryptocurrency technology, and other countries are also actively trying to develop their own cryptocurrency. However, most countries still insist on strict supervision of cryptocurrencies and have successively formulated and promulgated some policies to strengthen supervision.
National regulatory policies have been introduced one after another.
The cryptocurrency market is facing continuous regulatory pressure around the world, and governments all over the world are exploring a regulatory model for cryptocurrency transactions that suits their national conditions.
Nordic Union Bank, the largest bank in northern Europe, recently issued a ban requiring employees to stop trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from February 28 this year; 654381October 22nd, the Indian tax authorities said that after a national survey showed that the cryptocurrency transactions in India in June of 5438+07 exceeded US$ 3.5 billion, they issued tax notices to hundreds of thousands of people. South Korea's financial regulator announced that it is forbidden to use anonymous bank accounts for cryptocurrency transactions from 65438+1October 30th.
Strict supervision has achieved remarkable results. Not long ago, the spot bitcoin price in the international market plummeted by nearly $2,000 in one day. After reaching a high of $20,000 in February 20 17, the price of bitcoin has now dropped to about $65,438 +0. 1 0,000. More and more people in the industry believe that Bitcoin may become the next economic bubble.
Robert Shiller, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, said that the bitcoin phenomenon is like the famous tulip craze in history, and its ending is "very likely to collapse completely and be forgotten".
"I wouldn't be surprised if the price of Bitcoin drops to $65,438+0,000 to $3,000 in the next year." Peter Bukva, chief investment officer of Berkeley Financial Group, said that as the global interest rate rises, the cryptocurrency will collapse. The loose monetary policy provided by the Federal Reserve and other institutions to alleviate the impact of the global financial crisis should be the reason for the prosperity of cryptocurrency.
At present, the international community is also discussing whether there are a large number of traditional investors and financial institutions involved in bitcoin transactions, and whether it will trigger systemic financial risks once the bitcoin bubble bursts. Experts said that at present, the regulatory measures introduced by various countries are also looking for acceptable strength and methods in their own countries, which can not only strengthen supervision but also avoid risks.
The international community needs to strengthen policy coordination.
In the face of regulatory measures introduced by various countries, cryptocurrency trading platforms have played a "whack-a-mole game" to find living space in countries around the world.
Recently, Poland has attracted the attention of more and more cryptocurrency trading companies. Last year, the Polish currency zloty ranked fifth among the currencies with active bitcoin transactions, which surprised many people. "The Polish government actively promotes the development of virtual currency. Compared with other Western European countries, Poland's financial system is more inclusive of cryptocurrency." Kuyadik, an investor engaged in cryptocurrency trading in Poland, told reporters.
"At present, countries are generally cautious when introducing regulatory policies for cryptocurrencies. On the one hand, they are worried about strangling the relevant technical environment, on the other hand, they are worried about financial risks. The policies introduced by various countries are also tight and loose, which brings new problems to bitcoin supervision. Therefore, the supervision of cryptocurrency requires global coordination and cooperation. " Professor Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Renmin University of China, said.
The regulation of bitcoin is likely to become a new topic at this year's G 20 summit. Lemerre has said many times that he will propose to discuss the issue of Bitcoin at the G20 Summit, and all member countries need to discuss the regulation of managing Bitcoin together to cope with speculative risks. US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin also said recently that he will cooperate with G20 to prevent cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin from becoming digital equivalents of anonymous Swiss bank accounts.
Experts suggest that the G-20 and some international financial institutions should speed up the formulation of relevant principles and guidelines to provide cases and follow for countries to establish coordinated regulatory policies. At the same time, achieve global coordination of supervision and crack down on illegal cryptocurrency transactions and crimes.