It was announced on Wednesday that the government of Uzbekistan had restricted access to a number of large international cryptocurrency exchanges due to allegations of non-licensed activity. This comes after the government of Uzbekistan had previously made significant strides toward a more moderate approach to cryptocurrencies.
In a statement dated August 10, the National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP) projects informed that “various electronic platforms” assist in the exchange and trade of crypto-assets without having obtained the necessary license in violation of the existing legislation, and as a result, access to them was restricted. This was done in order to prevent violations of the law.
The tone of the statement, on the other hand, gave the impression that after obtaining a license and satisfying the necessity to deploy data centers in the homeland of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as is required by law, there should be no additional barriers for foreign exchanges to provide their services to customers in the country. For the time being:
“They are unable to guarantee the legitimacy of transactions, as well as the correct storage and protection of the privacy of information data of citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan. They have no legal responsibility for transactions with crypto-assets, and they cannot guarantee the legitimacy of transactions.”
The decree issued by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on July 3, 2018, titled “On measures to expand the digital economy and the field of crypto-assets turnover in the Republic of Uzbekistan,” is the piece of existing legislation that is being referred to here.
Uzbekistan’s quest to regulate Crypto Markets
The NAPP itself only recently became the primary crypto regulator in the country. At the tail end of April 2022, the President of the Republic Shavkat Mirziyoyev issued an order to regulate the market, committing the newly formed Agency to the mission to adopt a “special crypto regulation regime” in Uzbekistan. This decree is what gave the NAPP its status as the principal crypto controller in the country.
In June, the NAPP said that it would only provide permission for enterprises to mine Bitcoin (BTC) or even other cryptocurrencies in the country if those companies used solar energy. Additionally, the executive order mandated that all mining operators obtain a certificate and register their business with the national registry of cryptocurrency mining firms.
Uzbeki cryptocurrency investors were active on a number of international platforms, including Binance, FTX, and Huobi, among others. Cointelegraph has reached out to them to confirm the situation and will update the story whenever additional information is made available to us.