The Malaysian central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, has yet to make a decision on how to effectively regulate the use of digital currencies in the country, according to local reports. One of the options being considered by the bank is the possible ban of virtual currencies.

Regulating the cryptocurrency market in Malaysia appears harder than expected, and it is turning out to be that way across the globe, as there are still very few countries which have introduced active guidelines on the use of this new form of money.

Possible options for the Malaysian central bank

Implementing a complete ban on virtual currencies is impossible under any circumstances since government cannot ban or prohibit what they cannot control.

Some possible options that could be used by the central bank, however, are the prohibition of banks from dealing with digital currencies, the closure by banks of customer accounts using cryptocurrencies, and forcing the use of cash through peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces or decentralized exchange models.

Despite indecision by Bank Negara Malaysia, it is expected that the issue of regulating cryptocurrencies will become clearer by the end of 2017. It will be quite interesting to see whether the central bank will officially authorize the use of the digital currencies or repress the introduction of new innovations.

Other cryptocurrency developments around the world

Meanwhile, a report claiming that China has already banned the use of virtual currencies seems to be inaccurate. It appears that what the Chinese government has done was to prohibit ICOs and temporarily suspend CNY-to-cryptocurrency trading rather than issuing a complete ban on the cryptocurrencies.