The Treasury of the UK has announced plans to strongly regulate the transfer of cryptocurrencies with a view to cracking down on money laundering and tax evasion. The regulations have not been stipulated with specificity, but will certainly include anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) details.

The regulation is intended to take force before the end of 2017, or just at the beginning of 2018. The increased regulations, in line with the directives in the EU, are intended to limit the amount of anonymity possible for cryptocurrency traders. According to John Mann, one of the Treasury committee:

"These new forms of exchange are expanding rapidly and we've got to make sure we don't get left behind - that's particularly important in terms of money-laundering, terrorism or pure theft. I'm not convinced that the regulatory authorities are keeping up to speed. I would be surprised if the committee doesn't have an inquiry next year. It would be timely to have a proper look at what this means. It may be that we want to speed up our use of these kinds of thing in this country, but that makes it all the more important that we don't have a regulatory lag.”

Other regulations

Other regulations have been threatened around the world, as Bitcoin price soars. With adoption exploding, and massive influx of institutional capital via futures and other contracts, Bitcoin is becoming far more of a financial reality that it has ever been before. China, Russia, and other countries have made it clear that the digital currency will be off-limits, while other countries like Switzerland and Malta are seemingly far more open.