The UK Treasury, intends to regulate Bitcoin (Bitcoin) and other cryptocurrencies under European Union anti-money laundering rules, forcing traders in the cryptocurrency to disclose their identities and any suspicious activity, The Independent reported.
In a statement, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay said:
“The UK Government is currently negotiating amendments to the anti-money-laundering directive that will bring virtual currency exchange platforms and custodian wallet providers into Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing regulation.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, Treasury Select Committee member John Mann said he expects the Government to carry out an inquiry over regulating digital currencies.
“These new forms of exchange are expanding rapidly and we’ve got to make sure we don’t get left behind – that’s particularly important in terms of money-laundering, terrorism or pure theft”, he said.
"It would be timely to have a proper look at what this means. It may be that we want to speed up our use of these kinds of thing in this country, but that makes it all the more important that we don't have a regulatory lag,” he added.
The Treasury expects changes to new EU-wide rules to come into effect by the end of December or early next year.
Bitcoin hit record highs of $11,879 on Sunday night, before dropping to $11,253 on Morning morning, according to online cryptocurrency trading platform Coin Exchange.