Austria Looks to Gold as Inspiration for Cryptocurrency Regulation

The co-CEO of Bitpanda, Austria's biggest Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term broker, thinks that Bitcoin should be regulated in a similar way to gold, as the company looks for the official stamp of approval, according to investing.com.

"We’ve wanted to be regulated, but so far have been told that we cannot be,” said Eric Demuth. Paul Klanschek, the other co-CEO, said: “Regulation Regulation Like any other industry with a high net worth, the financial services industry is tightly regulated to help curb illicit behavior and manipulation. Each asset class has its own set of protocols put in place to combat their respective forms of abuse.In the foreign exchange space, regulation is assumed by authorities in multiple jurisdictions, though ultimately lacking a binding international order. Who are the Industry’s Leading Regulators?Regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ( Like any other industry with a high net worth, the financial services industry is tightly regulated to help curb illicit behavior and manipulation. Each asset class has its own set of protocols put in place to combat their respective forms of abuse.In the foreign exchange space, regulation is assumed by authorities in multiple jurisdictions, though ultimately lacking a binding international order. Who are the Industry’s Leading Regulators?Regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ( Read this Term should come from the EU level.”

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The Austrian finance ministry said in February that it is drawing on gold trading regulations as inspiration for the writing of cryptocurrency rules.

Hartwig Loeger, the finance minister of Austria, said that Bitcoin trades of 10,000 euros and above should be reported, and counterparties identified. This is how precious metal trades are currently governed. He also said that initial coin offerings should be approved by the national financial watchdog.

Gold is often seen by authorities as a potential vehicle for criminal activity, a fact which has been overshadowed of late by the preponderance of cryptocurrency on the airwaves. Retail sales of gold are exempted from VAT in the EU, and traders of gold are not subject to the extensive rules that their peers in the stock/bond markets are, according to Bloomberg.

Vienna-based Bitpanda was founded in 2014, and has been doing very well lately - it saw 600 million euros transacted on its platform in 2017, mostly in the last quarter, according to investing.com. In January it began offering Bitcoin Cash, and last month added Ripple to its platform too. It supports the SegWit upgrade, which is an increasingly popular option in the Bitcoin market, and opened a new office in London last month.

It also has strong links with the Austrian establishment, selling Bitcoin vouchers via the national postal service and recently signing deals with the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Technical University of Vienna.