According to “International Investment”, The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Regulatory Authority has reportedly said that “virtual asset services may not be conducted in or from the QFC at this time,”
This means that Qatar, a country in the Middle East, banned cryptocurrency trading both in fiat-to-crypto, and crypto-to-crypto form. The ban, according to International Investment also includes financial services related to cryptos and custody solutions.
Per the report, the regulator made it clear the ban applies to “anything of value that acts as a substitute for currency, that can be digitally traded or transferred and can be used for payment or investment purposes.”
The reason behind the move is currently not known although some speculate it may be related to potential terrorist financing or money laundering.
Remember that Simplecoin, a Netherlands-based cryptocurrency ‘mining pool’ set up to enable collaborative discovery of new virtual currency coins announced it would be shutting down before the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD), came into effect in all EU Member States on 10th Of January 2020.
The 5AMLD requires providers of crypto platforms and wallets to identify their customers for anti-money laundering purposes.
The company in its statement said “Simplecoin will become subject to a large range of AML/KYC requirements. It is because under the new Directive, we would be considered a “custodial wallet provider”, a broad definition that will apply to many cryptocurrency operations. When the laws come into effect, we would be forced to require you, the users, to identify yourselves for anti-money-laundering purposes. We have been searching for solutions for a while, but it has become apparent that there is no way around it.
“We believe in the power of cryptocurrency and its potential. Mining should to be available to anyone and we refuse to jeopardise our users’ privacy. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on mining pools and the cryptocurrency space as a whole,”