South American Bitcoin exchanges are dealing with a lot of issues as of late. After SurBTC and SurBitcoin had to deal with problems earlier this year, Columbian exchange Colbitex was forced to shut down for the time being. According to the information, we have received, the local government is not too keen on this company.
Colbitex Shuts Down After Noting Highest Daily Volume
Governments all over the world are rather hostile towards Bitcoin exchanges these days, even when they try and comply with existing regulation. Colombia is one of those countries where the only official recognized currency is the Peso, and other types of value are illegal by law. This has caused the Colbitex exchange to shut down operations, just eight days after its official launch.
July 25, 2016, was a big day for the Colbitex team. The Colombian Bitcoin exchange team opened its doors to the public by offering a fiat-to-Bitcoin gateway platform. Colbitex is also the first Bitcoin exchange in Colombia, but apparently, there was an excellent reason for that. The local legislation is not too kind towards cryptocurrency right now, and most entrepreneurs try to steer clear from Bitcoin.
Colombian authorities, or to be more precise, the financial authority of Colombia, have prohibited all cryptocurrency operations in the country. Their decision is based on the ideology of Bitcoin not being labeled as “money” in the country. But there is more, as these government officials want to make Bitcoin activity punishable by law, similar to what Russia is doing.
All of this has forced the hand of Colbitex, as they have shut down their Bitcoin exchange platform indefinitely. The company is looking into this legislation, and will determine if they can operate within these narrow legal boundaries. However, this process will take days, or even weeks and the website has been taken offline until the matter is resolved.
Bitcoin has caused many regulatory discrepancies all over the world. That is only normal, as existing regulations and legislation had not been amended for several decades. Since Bitcoin cannot be controlled by banks or governments, county officials take particular offense to this system, as it ‘may disrupt the local economy”.
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