Cuba and India: Central banks move to regulate crypto and national digital currencies

The Central Bank of Cuba has published a regulation for the use of cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets in commercial transactions. According to the resolution 215/2021 published in the Official Gazette of Cuba, the regulation will enter into force in a fortnight and will also regulate the licensing of virtual goods service providers for operations related to financial, exchange and collection or payment activities. to and from the island. The central Cuban institution defines virtual goods as “the digital representation of value that can be exchanged or transferred digitally and used for payments or investments”. The term, according to the agency, includes the concepts of digital asset, cryptoasset, cryptocurrency, virtual currency or digital currency. The Central Bank also clarified that it is the only entity authorized to allow financial institutions and other legal persons to use virtual assets among themselves and with individuals, for monetary and commercial transactions. Indeed, central government bodies, political and social organizations and other institutions will not be able to use digital assets without the authorization of the Central Bank. In this sense, the issuing institution warned of the “intrinsic risks of the unauthorized use of virtual goods and their services, as well as of the legal consequences that derive from them, in the civil, administrative and criminal fields”. According to local media, the most popular cryptocurrencies on the island are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India is ready to launch its test program for a national digital currency by December, as clarified by Central Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das to CNBC: “We are being very careful because it is a completely new product, not only for us, but globally “. The bank is studying various aspects of a digital currency such as security, the impact on the Indian financial sector and how it could affect national monetary policy. The first choice that will be addressed concerns the possibility of focusing on a centralized ledger, owned and managed by the central bank or on a distributed ledger that allows multiple participants to access, share and record transactions simultaneously: “I think that by the end of the year we should be able to start our first tests ”.