Liberal senator drafts cryptocurrency bill to regulate 'stablecoins' and China's digital yuan
Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg
Modified Date:- Published Date:-Categories: Cryptocurrency
Liberal senatordrafts cryptocurrency bill to regulate 'stablecoins' and China's digital yuan
SenatorBragg will introduce a private member's bill when parliament next sits,including new rules governing crypto exchanges, and Chinese banksdealing with e-yuan in Australia.
"TheChinese government is piloting what they call the digital yuan, which is adigital form of currency, and they're currently trialling that outside of Chinaas well, with the UAE [United Arab Emirates], Hong Kong and Thailand," he told RN Breakfast host PatriciaKarvelas on Monday.
Thatcurrency, if it became widespread in the Pacific, or even within Australia,would give the Chinese state enormous power, economic and strategic power thatit doesn't have today.
"SoI think we need to be prepared for that. We need to know more about thisdigital currency, so the bill establishes reporting requirements in thatregard."
Chinafar ahead of Australia on digital currencies
China wasthe first major economy to explore the use of digital currencies in 2014, andis far ahead of its global peers. It has been conducting limited trials of thee-yuan over the past three years.
However,China has yet to launch the digital currency across its population of 1.4billion people — which is seen by critics as a way to ramp up state control ofthe payments system.
In Septemberlast year, China's government imposed a blanket ban on all cryptocurrencytrading. Unlike bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies (which are "decentralised",or not controlled by the government), the e-yuan falls under the authority ofthe People's Bank of China.
Tougherrules for 'stablecoins'
There iscurrently very little regulation in the Australian cryptocurrency industry.A cryptoexchange is only required to follow the general provisions of theCorporations Act, and collect data about its customers (for the financialcrimes regulator AUSTRAC) when they open a trading account.
Thedevastating effects of the crash of crypto "stablecoins" Terraand Luna are being felt by many but their crash may have been orchestrated inone massive piece of ethically questionable trading.
They includea new market licensing regime for digital currency exchanges, amendments to taxrules around cryptocurrencies to clarify when a capital gain or loss isrealised, and the introduction of tax incentives for companies that userenewable energy for crypto mining (a process that leads to the creation of newdigital coins).
But afterthe Coalition's defeat in the May federal election, Senator Bragg'srecommendations have not been progressed by the new Labor government. "TheGovernor of the Reserve Bank in Australia and Janet Yellen [the US TreasurySecretary] have been calling for regulation, so that if someone wants to issuea stablecoin, they are required to hold reserve capital to meet any risk."
Senator Bragg, Chinese Government, stablecoins, Australia, crypto Exchanges, cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, China, Digital currency, China's Digital yuan