Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin put forward his intention to legalize digital currencies. Zahidi said the move would help the younger generation who are active users of the currency, especially on non-fungible token [NFT] trading platforms.
The Minister said the department will look into ways to increase the youth’s involvement in digital assets which he claims is the future of finance.
“All of these are under the purview of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission. We hope the government will allow and legalize this so that we can increase the youth’s uptake of cryptocurrencies.”
Zahidi also spoke about the government’s stand on trading on NFT platforms, which was becoming more popular, especially among the younger generation.
That being said, Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Ministry oversees the digital and broadcasting sectors didn’t specify under which ministry digital assets come. While financial regulation falls under the central bank and the securities regulator, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government also has jurisdiction over “digital financial activities,” Zahidi said.
Malaysia’s legal crypto adoption will lead to bullish price action
Following the news, the crypto community went into a tizzy. Entrepreneur and VanEck’s digital asset initiatives strategist, Gabor Gurbacs tweeted that the country’s population stood at around 30 million and its GDP is 35th in the global ranking, next to Hong Kong. “I wouldn’t be surprised if G20 countries also made similar moves,” he added.
Another user commented, if it turns into reality, Malaysia will be the second country after El Salvador in accepting crypto as legal tender. This news would provide a much-needed boost and expects ‘a good spike in the price of crypto’.
However, the Bank Negara Malaysia which is its Central Bank hasn’t announced any formal position on adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. In an interview back in January, the top bank said that it’s examining whether to introduce its own digital currency or CBDC. At the time of this post, the bank didn’t respond to Zahidi’s remarks.
Last September, the Asian nation worked collectively with the Bank for International Settlements, Australia, Singapore, and South Africa to test the use of CBDCs for international settlements through a shared platform dubbed Project Dunbar.