Guiding and Empowering Governments and Industry Leaders to Demystify Crypto Legislation and Investigations (personal views)
When I spoke about real efforts to harmonize cryptocurrency legislation across OSCE Participating States at a conference last year, I often encountered ironic eye rolls and laughter, leaving me with the impression that I was being naïve, hoping for real change in Central Asia. However, with an average electricity cost per inhabitant of less than €10 per year (!) in #Turkmenistan, we have just completed our kickoff session as there is a drafted preliminary framework for legislation covering cryptocurrencies, virtual assets, their supervision, and regulation. Despite nearly free electricity for its citizens and no budgetary deficit, the primary challenge for Turkmenistan may initially lie in addressing illicit #mining activities that impact the power grid. Given the complexity of Turkmenistan's situation, the motivation to embark on regulatory work aligned with #FATF’s Recommendations 15 and 16 differs somewhat from prior experiences in most of the countries. Nevertheless, comprehensive work is underway by the Central Bank and Finance Intelligence Unit and if desired moving ahead, lessons learned from other states will be shared to avoid repeating past mistakes—a core purpose of the multilateral framework. Who’s smiling now? This progress has been facilitated, as always, with an unprecedented level of dedication and hard work by Vera Maria Strobachova Budway, Kurban B., Aneta Krzemień, alongside Roman Bieda. I never claimed that it was easy, but this was quite a journey this year to push for change in a comprehensive way, as only a harmonised legislation provides AML and CFT coverage.
Thanks Michal Gromek Roman Bieda for your great work! I would also like to thank Berdi Sahetmyradov for his support and making this workshop happened. Special thanks go to my colleagues at OSCE Aneta Krzemień and Vera Maria Strobachova Budway 🙏