Paraguayan Senate Passes Cryptocurrency Bill!
The Paraguayan Senate has passed a cryptocurrency bill that regulates all the operations of cryptocurrencies in the country. The bill was submitted to the deputy chamber and adopted in the latest senate meeting with some revisions. On July 14, the Paraguayan Senate passed the bill which includes rules that crypto lending companies, platforms, crypto investors, and traders must follow to operate with the cryptocurrencies.
The bill mainly governs cryptocurrency mining and trading in the country. The Paraguayan Senate adopted the cryptocurrency bill in December, and the Chamber of Deputies approved it in May 2022. Since both chambers have adopted the measure, the Senate executive branch must now accept or reject it.
Paraguayan Senate Passes Cryptocurrency Bill
The Chamber of Deputies has brought many modifications to the law. The main change proposed by them is that the primary law enforcement authority will be the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which will penalize those individuals or legal entities carrying out mining or providing services with crypto without the corresponding authorization.
Also, the National Electricity Administration will be in charge of enabling the energy supply. Secretariat of the Prevention of Money or Asset Laundering would supervise crypto businesses’ investment procedures.
Once the law comes into action, the individuals and companies who want to mine cryptocurrencies have to request authorization for industrial electricity consumption and then apply for a license. One of the bill authors, Congressman Carlos Rejala said “ the law looks to attract international miners using the low electricity rates of the country, which are around 5 cents per kilowatt-hour”.
The cryptocurrency now approved by the Paraguayan Senate will rest in the hands of the President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez. Anyhow, some lawmakers expressed their discomfort and criticized the new bill, and are calling for a presidential veto. A senator, Esperanza Martinez said, “the cryptocurrency was not even a real industry. Furthermore, Martinez stated that the industry was electro-intensive and extractivist”. Another senator, Enrique Bacchetta criticized the law and asked for a presidential veto. “This cryptocurrency bill won’t be the first one to experience this in Latam”.
Paraguay is the second country to propose a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender. Before Paraguay, last June, EI Salvador also announced cryptocurrency as a legal tender. Paraguay had a lot of concerns regarding the crypto entities such as taxation. The Paraguayan Senate passed a plan to tax crypto firms and miners and track transactions and investments.
