Bitcoin Daily: Malaysia Will Start Regulating ICOs, Russia May Invest In Bitcoin To Take On Sanctions

Malaysia’s initial coin offering (ICO) regulations are said to take effect on Tuesday (January 15) per a notice from the Securities Commission (SC) in the country, Coindesk reported. With the order, exchanges and offerings for tokens would need the SC’s approval. Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said, according to reports, “Any person offering an ICO or operating a digital asset exchange without SC’s approval may be punished, on conviction, with imprisonment not exceeding 10 years and fine not exceeding 10 million Malaysian ringgits.” At the same time, it was said that those who engage in digital asset dealing will have to follow rules for anti-money laundering (AML), among other regulations.

In other news, The Danish Tax Agency (known as the Skattestyrelsen in the Danish language) has received the go ahead in order to access the data of traders in digital currency exchanges, Coindesk reported. The data is said to encompass the central person registration (CPR) number as well as names, addresses and trades. According to a statement from the agency last month, which was cited by the outlet, almost 2,700 of the country’s citizens traded digital currency valued at $15.35 million between 2015 and 2017 through the Finnish bitcoin exchange.

On another note, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have a new marketing campaign that includes a full-page New York Times ad and is dubbed “Revolution Needs Rules,” Fortune reported. Through a video quoted by the outlet, Tyler said, “The idea is that companies that build on top of things like Bitcoin should have regulation that’s thoughtful and that doesn’t stifle innovation.” He went on to say that “People believe in the dream of crypto, they just don’t know how to engage in it without getting burned.”

And a Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration economist said that Russia is looking to use bitcoin to take the place of some of its reserves in U.S. dollars, The Telegraph reported. The economist, Vladislav Ginko, said per the outlet that the “Russian government is about to make a step to start diversifying financial reserves into Bitcoin.” As it stands, the economist thinks that bitcoin as well as the broader digital currency space comprises 8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Russia.