By: Steve Dellar | 01-26-2018 | News
Photo credit: Zerbor | Dreamstime.com

US Treasury Says Bitcoin Used For "Illicit Activity"

World leaders, still gathered at Davos, Switzerland, were discussing crypto currencies, and everyone awaited the US’s government vision on these.

Whereas American banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are quietly starting to accept that crypto currencies are here to stay, and they will have to start trading them at a certain point, the US Treasury department still seems unsure.

Mr Steven Mnuchin, who leads the U.S. Treasury Department, sat on a panel with the Head of the IMF Ms Christine Lagarde, when he was asked to make a comment on the rise of Bitcoin. Mr Mnuchin remarked that he was worried about the "illicit use" of cryptocurrencies.

"My number-one focus on cryptocurrencies, whether that be digital currencies or bitcoin or other things, is that we want to make sure that they’re not used for illicit activities."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Treasury Secretary Mnuchin explains why he&#39;s really looking closely at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bitcoin</a> <a href="https://t.co/t3aqAJrycY">https://t.co/t3aqAJrycY</a> <a href="https://t.co/rv4IiitD9o">pic.twitter.com/rv4IiitD9o</a></p>&mdash; CryptoReedus (@Reedus33) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reedus33/status/956680104171651072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2018</a></blockquote>

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Meanwhile, Ms Lagarde admitted that even the IMF is now taking an interest in crypto currencies as she said that "the anonymity and lack of transparency and the way in which it conceals and protects money laundering and financing of terrorism, is just unacceptable. It needs to be taken into account but then there will be innovations coming out of these movements."

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz claims that a crash of crypto currency markets would not imply major movement on stock markets for the moment as the others have not accepted it just yet: "When we had the tech wreck, that was a much more widespread exposure. And the fact it barely had a perceptible effect on the real economy because it was not a stock market crash but just a segment of the stock market. But it was highly speculative, there was all kinds of bubbles there."

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $10k levels again, seemingly unable to break above $12k this week, and not falling below the $10k which seems to hold as a temporary bottom.

Source:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bitcoin-price-latest-regulation-values-donald-trump-mnuchin-crime-illicit-activities-a8178931.html

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1 Comment/s
Anonymous No. 16890 2018-01-26 : 22:11

Surprise…. so is any currec

Any currency can be used for illegal purposes. Should we stop using $$$$?

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