Burundi, a country in Central Africa has officially banned all forms of cryptocurrency trading in a bid to protect its citizens from risks.
As per a Bloomberg report today the country’s authorities ruled on a ban following series of complaints by citizens who lost money while trading cryptocurrencies, and subsequently called on the government to do something to save them from future losses.
Alfred Nyobewumusi, a director at the Burundi Central Bank’s micro-finance department, reportedly confirmed that trading digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether in the country is now illegal.
Nyobewumusi even added that “strong measures could be taken against all those who will not respect this [ban] decision.”
Different Crypto Strokes for Different Folks
Notably, the path that Burundi has taken with regards to cryptocurrencies is in stark contrast to developments that Coinfomania reported in the past regarding other African countries such as South Africa and Seychelles.
For example, South Africa has made moves to regulate crypto trading activities in the country in a bid to protect investors and even recently opened debates regarding the possibility of launching a national cryptocurrency.
Seychelles, on the other hand, is home to BitMEX, the world’s largest crypto derivatives exchange and also recently produced the first national stock exchange to listed tokenized securities issued with blockchain technology.
Crypto regulations in these regions favor the development of the emerging industry, and raises hopes that maybe in the not so distant future, Burundi will emulate their African counterparts and embrace the crypto revolution.
