Mexican Lawmakers Pass Cryptocurrency Regulation Bill

Lawmakers in Mexico have reportedly advanced a bill that was drafted to regulate fintech, including cryptocurrencies, in the country.

According to Reuters, the bill was passed by Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of its legislature, on Thursday and currently is pending signature from Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto before it goes into effect as law.

The latest legislative move follows a previous green light from the country's Senate in December 2017 that cleared the way for the bill, which is aimed to bring certainty on the status of cryptocurrency, as well as to prevent use of the tech in illicit activities such as money-laundering.

As reported by CoinDesk, the framework aims to set out that cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in Mexico, a stance in line with comments from the country's central bank in early 2017. In a local report, Agustin Carstens, the then-governor of Banco de Mexico said bitcoin should be considered a commodity, not a currency.

In addition, the bill also seeks to put the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges under oversight of the country's central bank.

The Reuters report, though, indicates that the bill, drafted in general terms, will also see further development of a secondary law by other financial regulators such as Mexico's securities commission, the central bank and the finance ministry in the coming months.

The changes are expected to bring rules on activities such as fund-raising by cryptocurrency firms.

Mexican Senate image Shutterstock