Add Qatar To The Countries That Have Banned Cryptos…

If you thought the dawn of a new year would mean less animosity from governments towards cryptos, think again. Qatar has become the latest country to ban crypto trading.

Qatar’s financial regulator – QFC (Qatar Financial Centre)- blocked trading of all crypto asset services:

Virtual Asset Services may not be conducted in or from the QFC at this time.
QFC

More specifically the ban is said to include “anything of value that acts as a substitute for currency, that can be digitally traded or transferred and can be used for payment or investment purposes.”

Banned activities include:

exchange between virtual assets and fiat currencies;
exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets;
transfer of virtual assets;
safekeeping and/or administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets;
and participation in and provision of financial services related to an issuer’s offer and/or sale of a virtual asset

All of the above basically point to fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto trading, custody, and financial services related to virtual assets – all the current use cases of cryptocurrencies at the moment.

Back in 2018, the Central Bank of Qatar had banned Bitcoin because of its volatility so whilst this subsequent ban comes a while after the ban of Bitcoin, it doesn’t represent a shift in Qatari regulators attitude towards cryptocurrency.