© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Representations of digital cryptocurrencies are seen on this illustration taken November 28, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
N’DJAMENA (Reuters) -Central Africa’s regional banking regulator despatched out a reminder on Friday about its ban on cryptocurrencies, weeks after the Central African Republic, a member state, made bitcoin authorized tender.
The Banking Fee of Central Africa (COBAC), which regulates the banking sector within the six-nation Financial and Financial Neighborhood of Central Africa (CEMAC), mentioned the prohibition was meant to make sure monetary stability.
The announcement got here as cryptocurrencies nursed giant losses on Friday after the collapse of TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin, rippled by way of markets.
The Central African Republic’s presidency introduced on April 27 that bitcoin had been made authorized tender, making it solely the second nation to take action after El Salvador.
On the time, analysts and crypto specialists mentioned they have been puzzled by the transfer in certainly one of world’s poorest nations the place web use is low, battle is widespread and electrical energy is unreliable.
The federal government has supplied few particulars about its reasoning and questions stay about implementation.
Reached by cellphone on Friday, authorities spokesman Serge Ghislain Djorie informed Reuters that Central African Republic had acquired no official discover from the COBAC a couple of crypto ban, though he had seen the information within the press and on social media.
“We’re ready for the doc to be formally transmitted earlier than we will reply. It should be understood that every state has sovereignty,” Djorie mentioned.
The banking fee held a particular assembly on Could 6 to look at the affect of cryptocurrencies within the zone, it mentioned within the assertion on Friday.
“To be able to assure monetary stability and protect consumer deposits, COBAC recalled sure prohibitions associated to using crypto-assets in CEMAC,” it mentioned.
These embody the holding of cryptocurrencies of any sort, the alternate, conversion or settlement of transactions referring to cryptocurrencies and a bar on them getting used as a way of evaluating property or liabilities, it mentioned.
“COBAC has determined to take various measures aimed toward establishing a system for figuring out and reporting operations associated to cryptocurrencies,” it added.
