Bitcoin BANNED: Cryptocurrency to be OUTLAWED on stock exchange over terror finance fears
ISRAEL is looking to put the brakes on bitcoin’s rapid rise towards the mainstream following government concern over national security and terror funding.
By DAVID DAWKINS
Express.co.uk
Fri, Dec 29, 2017
After a month of rapid price rises and mainstream financial legitimacy, Israel’s market regulator is looking to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
In sharp contrast to Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest operator, becoming the third and most significant yet to offer US derivatives contracts linked to the headline-grabbing digital currency, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) said that they will suspend trading on any company involved in digital currencies.
The decision is believed to have triggered a sharp drop in price with bitcoin’s price dropping to $14,000 and yet to recover the losses of the Christmas crash.
Israel is not the first country to cast an eye across at bitcoin with suspicion.
Last September China began to shutter bitcoin exchanges and ban initial coin offerings, leading to a sharp drop in prices. The People’s Republic is expected to make more moves in the regulatory space as fears grow that the bitcoin bubble is set to burst.
Shmuel Hauser, director of the Israeli regulator, said a committee he has appointed to investigate how to regulate the digital currency would report back in the coming week, warning that he viewed the skyrocketing prices to be “a bubble”.
Hauser told an event: “Nobody knows what stands behind this”, adding that regulation is necessary because “the public is unprotected”.
But Edwin Dearborn, CMO at crypto-wallet firm e-Chat says that, for Israel, this is an issue of national security.
Mr Dearborn told Express.co.uk: “The Israeli government is concerned about how cryptocurrency could be used to finance terrorism and black market trading.”
The e-Chat CMO adds that with crypto-fever gripping the world and buzz all over both traditional and social media, bitcoin’s expansion presents many opportunities for Israel, both good and bad.
He says: “I believe we will see more volatility while governments and central banks implement greater regulations to protect consumers, as well as their own positions.”
“Sooner rather than later, Israel will adopt an official version of their own system, all highly regulated and monitored by the state.”
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