Khalid Abdul Samad, the Malaysian Federal Territories Minister, indicated that the country’s government is still not providing a cryptocurrency legalization framework as of yet.

As reported by New Straits Times, a Malaysian news outlet, the minister noted:

People have asked me if these (cryptocurrency) currencies are legal or illegal. At the moment, the answer is neither legal nor illegal as the situation is unclear.

When pressed to give more details about his involvement in a crypto coin that had a political agenda, Abdul said, while the claims are true, he was a federal territories minister and not a finance minister and so discussing about the coin was beyond his jurisdiction.

The coin that the minister was involved with its launching is called Harapan Coin. Although it was initially meant to be political in nature, Samad had reportedly presented the idea of it being used for governmental transactions to the Malaysian top bank.

Khalid’s statement comes in about one month since a joint statement was issued by the country’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), and the country’s securities watchdog, Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).

The statement indicated that a cryptocurrency legalization framework is being drawn.

In order to implement the regulatory framework on digital assets, the SC and BNM will enter into coordination arrangements to ensure compliance with laws and regulations under the purview of both regulators…. Regulations are being put in place to bring the digital assets within the remit of securities laws to promote fair and orderly trading and ensure investor protection.

Even as a framework on cryptocurrency legalization is being developed, Bank Negara Malaysia has already indicated that it does not recognize cryptocurrency as a legal tender. The bank has continued to warn the Malaysian public to be extra careful when dealing with virtual currencies.

Do you think a delayed cryptocurrency legalization framework hinders crypto adoption?

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