The use of crypto assets as a currency is forbidden for Muslims, according to Indonesia’s council of religious leaders.The National Ulema Council, or MUI, has deemed cryptocurrency as haram, or banned, as it has elements of uncertainty, wagering and harm, Asrorun Niam Sholeh, head of religious decrees, said on Thursday after the council held an expert hearing.
China's central bank on Friday said all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies are illegal, sounding the death knell for the digital trade in China after a crackdown on the volatile currencies.The global values of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin have massively fluctuated over the past year partly due to Chinese regulations, which have sought to prevent speculation and money laundering."Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities,"
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand and interest for digital assets in Southeast Asia.“In the past, investors still understood that digital assets were digital currencies well known as Cryptocurrency,” stated the Siam Commercial Bank (SCB).
On 8 February, Elon Musk’s electric-car firm Tesla announced that it had invested US$1.5 billion of its cash reserves in Bitcoin back in January. The news helped to boost the cryptocurrency’s already skyrocketing price by a further 10 percent, to a record high of more than US$44,000. But, especially in Bitcoin’s case, what goes up can just as easily come crashing down. Bitcoin was invented in 2008 and began trading in 2009.
Cryptocurrency is a decentralised virtual currency that is deemed to be more efficient than traditional currencies because it is regulated by a community of users. As of 2019, the top 100 cryptocurrencies had a market value of about US$200 billion with bitcoin accounting for more than half of that amount.Bitcoin mining, the backbone of the network, refers to the production of bitcoin or digital coin through solving complex algorithms with specialised computers.
The price of Bitcoin surged recently after social media giant Facebook, unveiled its very own digital currency, Libra, in June 2019. The announcement came together with a white paper, ‘An introduction to Libra,’ which details the project’s vision.Facebook’s Libra is a cryptocurrency created for instant transfer with almost no fees to anywhere in the world.
Cryptocurrency is a decentralised virtual currency that is deemed to be more efficient than traditional currencies because it is regulated by a community of users. The top 100 cryptocurrencies have a current market value of about US$200 billion according to CoinMarketCap, a site that provides up-to-the-minute updates for digital market data.
When blockchain and cryptocurrency first made headlines, many saw them as disruptors to the current financial order. This is because transactions that involve cryptocurrencies remove the need for an intermediary – a role banks and other financial institutions have traditionally filled.Unlike banks and the current financial system, cryptocurrencies are backed by a system called blockchain. Blockchain is essentially a decentralised ledger, where every transaction is recorded.
When blockchain and cryptocurrency first made headlines, many saw them as disruptors to the current financial order. This is because transactions that involve cryptocurrencies remove the need for an intermediary - a role banks and other financial institutions have traditionally filled.Unlike banks and the current financial system, cryptocurrencies are backed by a system called blockchain. Blockchain is essentially a decentralised ledger, where every transaction is recorded.
Following a regulatory framework which went into effect last month, Thailand’s central bank has announced a set of rules governing cryptocurrency activities in the country.
Securities, or not securities.
For the past year, the term “cryptocurrency” has been bandied about by people in the tech and banking industries, usually with admiration from the former and some scepticism from the latter. More startups in the region are beginning to contemplate integrating cryptocurrencies into their respective business models. Fintech firms too could especially benefit from introducing cryptocurrency into their operations.
