Bitcoin Daily: US Bill Seeks To Regulate Crypto; Belarus Seeks Power To Take Crypto From Criminals

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus is reportedly intending to support a legal initiative that would allow them to seize digital currency from criminals, Cointelegraph reported.

The leader of the committee, Ivan Noskevich, reportedly discussed the initiative in an interview with a television channel that is owned by the state.

Belarus reportedly doesn’t have a law that would let it confiscate digital currency via enforcement actions. And, even though the committee is aiming to receive permission to seize digital currency, the outlet reported that multiple nations around the globe have been auctioning seized digital currencies.

Noskevich reportedly said he hopes that Belarusian legislators would respect the committee’s position and put the needed amendments into procedure law that already is in place.

“We’ve encountered such cases before, but there was no legal regulation of the mechanism for seizing cryptocurrency,” he said, according to Cointelegraph. “I hope that the legislators will listen to the opinion of the Investigative Committee, and such amendments will be introduced into the criminal procedure legislation.”

In other news, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona has put forward a bill that aims to associate a broad array of digital assets to the suitable regulator, Cointelegraph reported. His proposal splits digital assets into cryptocurrency, crypto-commodity and crypto-security. The legislator is introducing the bill alone sans co-sponsor, per the report.

“Since this is such a niche issue, we worked with stakeholders and outside groups/experts to get a good sense of the kind of clarity that the industry needed,” said Gosar’s communications director, Ben Goldey, according to Cointelegraph. “We chose to gather stakeholder support before working toward co-sponsors.”

The legislative assistant of Gosar, Will Stechschulte, told the outlet, “the bill looks to provide not only clarity, but legitimacy to crypto assets in the United States.”

The report also noted that Erik Finman, a bitcoin investor, was one of the industry players involved in the legislation’s drafting.