[ad_1]
Tunisian Finance Minister Ali Kooli said in a television interview over the weekend that he plans to change the country’s cryptocurrency laws.
Bitcoin ownership should be “decriminalized,” he said, according to an English translation.
The proposed law change comes after local media reported that a 17-year-old Tunisian boy was arrested in April for using cryptocurrency for an online transaction. The incident sparked outrage in the Tunisian crypto community, with many attributing the arrest to lack of regulatory clarity in Tunisia.
Related: Republican Senator Asks FinCEN to Reconsider Controversial Crypto Rule
As regulators across Africa appear to wrestle with crypto politics, offering conflicting statements and publishing crackdowns, adoption by African retail users is only accelerating. During an appearance on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” earlier this month, Paxful CEO Ray Youssef said the African continent is the world leader in global cryptocurrency adoption and has encouraged the crypto community to “have all eyes on Africa right now”.
At the Swiss crypto conference last year, Tunisian central bank governor Marouane el Abassi said of bitcoin:
“We are convinced that restricting a technology in its infancy would be a mistake. … The Central Bank of Tunisia has made the strategic choice to position itself as a facilitator with the Tunisian innovation ecosystem.
But regardless of the claims, efforts to get favorable crypto laws off the books in Tunisia languished, leading to events like April’s arrest.
Related: Distributed Ledgers Included in US Senate Tech Bill
Even without regulatory clarity, crypto adoption in Tunisia is growing at a record pace. According to a report by Carthage, an English-language Tunisian publication, registrations of Tunisian users on crypto exchanges like CEX.IO are up 11% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to last year.
Related stories
[ad_2]
picture credit