Paraguay Prepares Local Crypto Industry For Mainstream Exposure

Paraguay prepares to take its crypto industry to the next level by trying to comply with the regulations but to also improve them. In our latest cryptocurrency news, we take a closer look at the plans of the country to further develop its crypto industry.

The Latin American country’s anti-money laundering chief and the Secretary for Preventing Money and Property Laundering launched a survey around the country and each one of the virtual assets service providers in the country was directed to open their books to the government for the first time. Impelled by the Financial Action Task Force back in June and the guidance on VASPs, the audit will help Paraguay’s government to understand the crypto industry as the SEPRELAD officials explained. This decision will also pave the way for the first crypto-specific regulations in the country that are set to roll out in 2020. Secretary Minister Christian Villanueva said:

 “Data obtained will be used to measure the degree of adoption, complexity, and size of the virtual asset market in Paraguay, with the purpose of drafting a regulation that adequately regulates them and mitigates the risk of misuse.’’

This nation of 6.8 million regulated cryptocurrencies, the central bank warned the public that only the guarani currency is a legal tender. Paraguay prepares the field by now regarding the matter rather than avoiding it since the country is dominated by off-the-books business dealings and the International Monetary Fund estimated that the employment represents ‘’ more than half’’ of Paraguay’s jobs.

The regulatory guidelines from the FATF increased the pressure in the country to develop better crypto standards and the recommendation of the FATF guideline expanded the AML benchmarks to include technologies such as ‘’virtual assets.’’ With the new directive, the SEPRELAD puts the country on track to be compliant with the Recommendation before 2020 finishes. All of the crypto miners and OTC trading desks including the regular exchanges will have to register with the government and implement a minimum oversight on their customers’ dealings with CFT protocols and AML safeguards.

Before the government even started reacting to crypto, the entire banking sector of the country shut out the miners and traders since they had a perfect excuse to deny all of the businesses that face bitcoin as a financial tool.