The G20, after it was called upon[1] by France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire to have a public debate about cryptocurrencies at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, made strides towards a global front for regulation of digital currencies.
Those strides could however be only considered baby steps as, at the conclusion of a meeting[2] of the finance ministers in March it was decided that July would be the deadline for “very specific recommendations[3].”
The recommendations were not about what to regulate, but rather, what data is needed.
Now, with the July deadline come and gone, the G20 has reiterated its March commitments[4], but has also decided to move to a new deadline of October where it will await the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) clarification on how its standards apply to what it calls crypto-assets.
The path to taking crypto seriously
The speculation and hyper growth that saw Bitcoin easily smash through the $10,000 barrier[5] through November 2017 certainly caught the eye of investors, but it also brought the decentralized and anonymous digital currency into the spotlight of global regulators[6].
The French finance minister’s suggestion that cryptocurrencies be part of the G20 talks in Argentina coincided with the peak[7] of Bitcoin’s price high.
When commenting on the G20 nations taking up the topic of Bitcoin, Bruno Le Maire indicated[8] a certain nervous attitude toward the skyrocketing asset.
“I am going to propose to the next G20 president, Argentina, that at the G20 summit in April we have a discussion all together on the question of Bitcoin. There
