The Albanian government has approved and signed off on a law regulating cryptocurrency in the country.
In October 2019, a draft law on Financial Markets and the technology related to distributed ledgers was presented to the Ministry of Finance. On 21 May of this year, the draft was approved in Parliament and it will enter into force on 1 September 2020. 88 voted in favor, 16 against, and 3 abstained.
The cryptocurrency sector in Albania was previously unregulated.
The law provides terms of licensing for crypto activities in the country as well as monitoring processes for financial infrastructures that operate on the blockchain. Albanian Minister of Finance, Anila Denaj said that the law was created to optimize the potential that the technology offers. She said that it also considered the various risks associated with the industry.
“The draft law aims to regulate conditions for licensing, exercising the activity of operators and stock exchanges and supervising them, as well as preventing abusive practices in the market where severe fines are stipulated for anyone that violates the provisions of the law,” the Minister said.
These risks include money laundering, terrorist financing, fraudulent schemes, and market manipulation.
Albania is the third country in the world, after Malta and France, to create a legal framework in support of cryptocurrency. There are also several cryptocurrency ATMs in the country, installed by Prague-based company General Bytes.
