G20 leaders agree to regulate crypto-assets but no mention of taxation

The final joint statement of the formidable G20 gathering in Argentina stated that participating nations would continue to fight crypto money laundering and terror financing.

However, an erroneous report claimed that cross-border crypto taxation was planned and the brief note was picked up and amplified by a variety of sources. The actual statement is in line with the current movement towards fighting crypto-assets laundering around the world. The misinformation is unlikely to be a factor in crypto price drops including Bitcoin’s current downward path.

G20 will fight crypto money laundering but no mention of taxation plans

The G20 Summit held in Argentina over the weekend led to a joint statement declaring unity on the subject. They did make a very general statement about cryptocurrency regulation. The only explicit mention of crypto is in the following sentence in point 25:

“We will regulate crypto-assets for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in line with FATF standards and we will consider other responses as needed.”

This is neither a surprising nor radical statement and is in line with ongoing attempts to address money laundering and terror financing, among other crimes, by a variety of nations for a number of years.

However, various news outlets made claims that “G20 leaders had called for taxes on cryptocurrencies.” In examining numerous versions of this story, it became clear that all that actually cited a source pointed to a mention of the news from Japanese news outlet Jiji.com which was said to be cited in an article in El Periódico. That article no longer mentions such news and no correction is posted.

The false information circulated through the global media system does not actually seem to have had an effect on Bitcoin prices as of the moment. The leading cryptocurrency’s problems remain the same, with its price continuing to drop.

Bitcoin dropping with no clear end in sight

While there’s no mention of the G20 gathering affecting it, Bitcoin’s recent price movement takes a slightly positive turn after its drop below US$4,000 on Monday. A Tuesday descent to a low of US$3,730 on one exchange was reversed, stabilizing a bit and rising back to nearly US$4000 again.

Crypto analyst Omkar Godbole stated that a “short-term bullish reversal would be confirmed only above the recent high of $4,410” and considers numerous possibilities based on technical analysis. However, sentiment analysis combined with a larger social view might be of more use at this point, unless one is speculating short-term or deciding whether now is a good time to buy more bitcoins.

Michael J. Casey, a senior advisor for blockchain research at MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative and the chairman of CoinDesk’s advisory board, says that “Crypto Winter Is Here.” Sadly, he notes his circa 2017 belief that widespread speculation in cryptocurrency was a good thing because it was helping take new perspectives mainstream. Now, with prices collapsing radically, he feels that many have been burned and that mainstream interest will be difficult to revive.