A membership-based organization, the purpose of the Chamber of Fintech in Argentina is to ensure the modernization and digitization of their financial services industry. A number of recommendations have been put forward by the organization for the upcoming regulation of cryptocurrencies in the country. The framework that has been proposed asks the government to follow the recommendations of the FATF and it also asks for a clear definition of virtual assets as well as that of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). The group is dedicated to updating and modernizing the structure of the Argentinian financial service providers. Therefore, it has shared its take on how the government should go about regulation of crypto assets in the future.
The proposal they have put forward has taken the increase of the usage of these assets into account. It has also established some important issues that the organization believes should be followed in order to regulate cryptocurrency in a better way. The first of the suggestions is to follow the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) because the country is part of the group. Thus, the FATF will oversee Argentina’s status about these recommendations. Moreover, the proposal has also talked about the need for having a clear definition of these virtual assets and also the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs).
As per the proposal, the definitions they come up with should be broad enough for including all the new technologies that are being introduced constantly, along with all services and activities related to them. Another recommendation that was included in the proposal was regarding the legal status of activities related to these virtual assets. The text stated that the law should explicitly define crypto rules because this would help those using virtual assets in opening bank accounts, without having to segregate themselves from the traditional banking sector.
In this way, VASPs will be able to avoid exclusion, something that has happened in a number of other countries previously. According to the Argentinian Chamber of Fintech, even though crypto regulation is expanding in the country without any regulation, it appreciates that a regulatory process has begun, both at a regional as well as global level. Therefore, it had decided to make such recommendations. The topic of cryptocurrency is now being discussed at the highest levels in the country. The current president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez said in August that he was open to the idea of adopting cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
However, he went on to say that he wasn’t very familiar with the subject and it was mostly ‘unknown’ to him. Moreover, some laws have already been developed and put into effect at the regional level in some regions where crypto users are required to pay taxes on their crypto assets because they are recognized as international currencies. Argentina is certainly not the only country that’s currently contemplating regulating its crypto industry. With their widespread use and adoption, these digital currencies have become a prominent subject in a number of countries around the globe.
