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New York's Financial Regulator Subpoenas Bitcoin Companies

Posted by Soulskill on from the party's-over-folks dept.

dreamstateseven writes "Things are getting serious for Bitcoin this month: a federal judge declared it real money, Bloomberg gave it an experimental ticker, Thailand declared it illegal, and now New York's financial regulator announced an interest in regulating it. The department is starting out by subpoenaing 22 digital-currency companies and investors to get a lay of the Bitcoin land. They sent letters to the major Bitcoin players asking them to hand over information regarding their money laundering controls, consumer protection practices, source of funding, pitch books (for Bitcoin start-ups) and investment strategies (for Bitcoin investors). Keep in mind, a subpoena doesn't mean criminal activity has taken place."

4 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. For the love of crypto by Rinisari · · Score: 4, Informative

    Thailand did not rule Bitcoin illegal. The head of the central bank of Thailand issued a preliminary ruling expressing that Bitcoin may be illegal because there are no laws that allow its use.

    Think about that for a moment.

    Read: http://qz.com/110164/thailands-infamous-bitcoin-crackdown-is-not-quite-what-it-seems/

    --
    Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
  2. Re:Can Someone Explain To Me The Difference... by ThatAblaze · · Score: 4, Informative

    Money is the most liquid medium of barter. Game money has to be converted to real money in order to have value. You would never try to pay for something outside of a game with game money, that would just be absurd. Instead you would sell the game money to an interested party, just like you would with, say, collectable baseball cards.

    Bitcoins, however, are being used directly as a medium of exchange.

  3. Re:So were you also one who bitched about Wall Str by DerekLyons · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is a false equivalency. The US government is allowed to regulate it's own money - that is - the sovereign currency that it issues. Bitcoins aren't defined or issued by the US government, so it has as much right to regulate Bitcoins as it has to regulate the Euro.

    This is utter nonsense - the US government is allowed to regulate anyone conducting financial transactions within the US. As I've said before, they don't care what those transactions are reckoned in - dollars, Bitcoins, or jars of hamster poop. The same rules apply to all of them.
     

    You don't need specific government regulations on marshmallows to make stealing them illegal, the same goes for Bitcoins.

    Yep, you're right - all they need to do is ensure that Bitcoins follow the same rules as anyone else. Which is exactly what they're trying to do.

  4. Re:So were you also one who bitched about Wall Str by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    To be perfectly clear: the government can regulate uses of Bitcoin within it's jurisdiction. It cannot regulate Bitcoin proper.