Bitcoin Forum

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-21/malaysian-ministry-proposes-legal-tender-of-crypto-currency

Okay now this is getting out of hand! After El Salvador being the first, to Honduras set to make BTC as legal tender soon, and now this???

This is just a proposal for now, so there’s no official word yet if it’s already official. You think this is a good idea for Malaysia to make Bitcoin as legal tender after some countries are following the footsteps of El Salvador?

What are your thoughts about this guys?

It is not only Malaysia, but also Mexico [1] and Ukraine (at least plans before the war) want to introduce Bitcoin as an official means of payment. There are certainly other countries that have recognized the advantages and just haven't made it public yet.


[1] https://www.cityam.com/mexico-being-lined-up-as-next-nation-for-full-bitcoin-adoption/

If this proposal gets signed, then Malaysia will be the first country in Asia to consider bitcoin as legal tender. Compared to many other Asian countries Malaysia have good userbase. This is positive sign on the Asian market. Earlier most of the Asian countries banned the usage of cryptocurrencies and some even made it a crime, and now slowly every country is accepting. Beyond restrictions people continue to use bitcoin and this proposal will make other countries consider of legalizing bitcoin.

Much the same as El Salvador before its Bitcoin as legal tender move I know nothing
of Malaysia so I guess they can see a positive way forward for their economy by
following El Salvador's pioneering move.

I recon if this has already reached the public domain a lot of the ground work has already
been done by the relevant government officials and the feel it will get the green light.

Something seems to have been lost in translation, as some use the term "legal tender" while others translate it as "legal transfer", which of course is not the same thing. If we take a closer look at who the proposal comes from (Communication Ministry), then it is enough to scratch under the surface and find out what the Minister of Finance thinks about it.


Besides, for those who don't know, Bitcoin doesn't have a good reputation in that country, because some used electricity for mining that they did not pay for.

Don't get your hopes up too much because this is pretty much just a proposal — whereas obviously there is no guarantee of it getting accepted in the end. Baby steps though, so it's still technically good news.

Funny how news such as this doesn't get the community hyped up as much as it used to back then though lol. If this was in 2017 we'd be up 10% almost instantly.

Today is far different from a year 2017, what I mean is people don't just easily trusting the news instead they are waiting for the approved resolution or law before they will going to believe it. Yes, I do remember wayback 2017 that this kind of news was been like a very good news that the market price easily affected and fluctuated but now it is totally different. Now, people are going to believe the shill or tweet of rich people like Elon Musk rather than this kind of news..

It's still a proposal from the Malaysia's communication minister which is just a fraction of decision making in the entire country chances of the adoption still remain slim. It might be a good move if it finally gets implemented adding to the list of bitcoin legalized countries. But this shouldn't be a basis for investment because the news is only in the early phase. It's still a suggestion which can still be declined

The consideration of the Malaysian government is not easy, it will follow the population base which is predominantly Muslim. Reflecting on the nearest neighboring country, Indonesia, the ministry of religion has its own law, which is to agree that bitcoin can't be used as currency for Muslims.
Maybe the views of Malaysian religious leaders are different, but I don't expect more.

Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country with a cryptocurrency ownership rate of 20%, ranking 2nd in the region after Vietnam, accounting for 28% of the population. Currently, bitcoin is also the most sought after and owned crypto in this country.
Deputy Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin predicts crypto will be the financial industry in the future, so he wants the government to approve this proposal soon to attract young people to participate in crypto more to boost the economy of Malaysia.

Sounds good to me. We have El Salvador & if you believe the rumours then soon Honduras also. Malaysia is a beautiful country, if they jump on board too it’ll be great. I really wouldn’t mind emigrating to Malaysia. 20 years from now 50% of the world will accept bitcoin as legal tender.

I was just thinking something similar.

I believe that an unstoppable race towards the massive use of Bitcoin has begun. In the previous cycle we had a boom of retail investors, in this we have started seeing the adoption by companies, and the beginning of the states considering it legal to tender. Surely there will be many states reluctant to consider Bitcoin as a legal tender because it is something they cannot control and because if they consider it so, they will lose money in taxes, but countries like El Salvador and the first to join the bandwagon is because they see benefits that exceed these points, such as saving a lot of money remittances fees and the advantage of being among the first to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender for the attraction of capital that it can bring.

This is what I am thinking here as well. Malaysia is more than 60% Islam in terms of religion. But anyway, maybe, their government officials have a different take on this. So wondering, is bitcoin going to be almost the same in context with their Malaysian Ringgit? Anyway, this proposal has not yet been approved so it may take years before they finally decide on this matter. We will see in the next couple of years maybe, how they will proceed on this proposal.

How I wish that the Philippines will be one of the 50% in 20 years from now as we're one of the crypto-friendly countries in Southeast Asia. But that really depends on who will be the next president as elections is coming this May if he or she supports or advocates crypto (like the newly-elected South Korean president who is pro-Bitcoin).

And yes, I agree that Malaysia is beautiful. I've been there twice (2013 and 2019) where I'm exploring Kuala Lumpur, Batu Caves and other attractions. Although that this was just a proposal, but at least it's a small step towards adopting and welcoming Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in open arms.

This is currently seemingly more of an idea than anything else. I tried to find something closer to the source of the information, and found these local articles:

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022/03/21/comms-ministry-proposes-adopting-cryptocurrency-as-legal-tender
https://www.hmetro.com.my/mutakhir/2022/03/823331/k-komm-gesa-penggunaan-mata-wang-kripto-dibenarkan

The first one is in English, and indicates that the comment was originated as an answer to a supplementary question on the government’s stand on trading NFTs.

The "legalise this", according to the first of the articles is in the provided context of NFT platforms. There is also a non-quoted part of the article that references "increase the youth’s involvement in digital currencies as it is the future of finance".”

From the above, I don’t see the legal tender shine on the story thus so far.


The second link (in Malaysian) kind of points in the same direction of above, but I don’t fully trust a GT of the article to be absolutely accurate. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem to reference the concept of legal tender either.


Let’s bear in mind that making cryptocurrency legal tender there is quite a leap from last year’s well known image:

Like what I mentioned to similar posts like these, the move that El Salvador did will definitely cause a chain reaction where other countries would soon follow this trend. It is just inevitable the dominance of cryptocurrencies in the market. Sooner and later, countries would start to adapt it into their finances to the point that they would slowly integrate it into their transactions.

The fact that the Malaysian Ministry proposed such idea speaks a lot about the future of cryptocurrencies in our payment and transactions. I just hope that more countries would soon follow this step as this is indeed the future of our payments.

I don't know if it's true or fake, but I don't see what the big deal is. Gradually the whole world from Europe and Asia to South America is starting to accept bitcoin in one way or another, some legally, some not so much. Especially Malaysia has long been known for its loyal attitude to cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, in the last year, many countries have officially declared bitcoin as a means of payment.

I don't think, that we should all be surprised that a lot of countries are making bitcoin legal tender. El Salvador has set precedent already, now it's time for some Asian countries to follow. And the thing is, many countries still developing nation could benefit from it.

This is a welcoming news and again, there could be more crypto friendly nation that might go to this route and who knows, in the next 5-10 years, bitcoin will be over the globe, from Africa to Asia.

when a proposal is submitted only a hope is there, not a certainty, because this is just a positive discourse,
if it is true that malaysia will be the first asia state to legalize trading with btc, hopefully there will be an asian state that makes btc trade legal like malaysia

It would certainly be good news if the Malaysian Parliament approves bitcoin as legal tender in the country. Although I still remember how they destroyed some bitcoin mining equipment as DdmrDdmr has shared.

But giving an opinion about it according to Chainalysis 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Malaysia occupies the ranking number 23 and very well the population can take the adoption. These statistics come as a result of various metrics and methodologies based on how we use bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which I think our P2P activities are revealing.

Not yet out of hand. There's only one country where Bitcoin is accepted as legal tender.

It is always better if Bitcoin is accepted legally across the world. It would become the only truly global currency. Any Bitcoin user doesn't have to convert into another local currency every time he travels anywhere in the world and spends money. He will also make savings out of fiat currency exchange spread. So I always support countries adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender. But even if not a legal tender for as long as Bitcoin is accepted as a currency and a form of payment then it will be all right.

it's just the start, though I honestly think we'd see more updates with this until at least a year or two. It seems like it was only talked about as an answer to a question, a passing thought so to say imo. There's probably still going to be a lot of talks and stuff that they would need to do before deciding anything else. Still, I think it should develop rather positively, I don't think putting it out as a legal tender would bring any actual negatives whatsoever to them.

more and more countries are planning to make bitcoin legal. Malaysia, Mexico, and Ukraine are among the countries currently discussing this. I also heard India also wants to try. The last information I know, they want to charge a pretty high tax, but that's just a discussion, and they haven't made a decision.

this proves that bitcoin is starting to make its way to wider adoption.

Lol why do you say “Okay this is getting out of hand” ? What’s wrong with this? Personally I think this is a great thing that’s only giving bitcoin more positive exposure and use cases. I think giving its citizens a second option is a smart thing by the government. This can help its citizens prosper, so why not make it legal tender?

@DdmrDdmr and Lucius

Same story again, right?
One guy says something about legalizing crypto or a part of crypto trading or something else and the crypto press blows everything out of proportion. Right now I honestly don't know why people are even mentioning FUD for something going wrong when every single day we're bombarded with exaggerations like this, to me the previous FUD seems now more like reality to balance things out.

That aside, I don't agree with example with the mining aspect, even if bitcoin becomes legal tender if somebody is caught stealing electricity the outcome will be the same, the public aversion is towards the miners and in a lot of cases, this happens all over the world in different scenarios. Everyone hates coal till their electric bill comes, everyone hates pesticides until they realize nothing is grown in their trees without, and a lot hate Amazon until it's time to buy something and they look at the prices.
I would do that rolling myself if I would catch something doing the same, especially since it hurts my own profits.  ;D


Two years from now on Indonesia will have 208% Philippines 356% and Nepal no less than 1001%.

There are other places in which you can pay government services with Bitcoin, here's a list (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5388237.msg59418935#msg59418935)

If you're considering what would be the next country to make it legal tender, then my guess was Tonga (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5375884.msg58651891#msg58651891), but the recent tsunami might have slowed down that.

El Salvador definitely kick-started the process, now a lot of countries are considering, and watching closely. But until a law is at least written, then there's not much to discuss about it.

Trading, probably. In daily usage, near-zero as eWallets/ QR payments triumph there.

It seems like something similar to what happened to Tonga and some of their lord who advocated Bitcoin, although I don’t want to claim that both politicians are equally important in their countries. Whether we like it or not, some people will benefit from this kind of news, because for months people have been profiting from "buy low, sell high" in the range of $35k - $45k, and everyone wants something positive to happen since on the one hand we have a war, and on the other hand inflation is just beginning to seriously stifle us.


As for the theft of electricity, there is no doubt - theft is theft no matter what status Bitcoin had in a country. I was thinking more of the general perception of the public because of such events combined with what their finance minister thinks when it comes to Bitcoin. All this together does not seem to be a fertile ground for declaring Bitcoin a legal tender.


I've never bought anything using Amazon, and I don't use any poisons for my personal use in growing fruits and vegetables - and yet I manage to grow healthy vegetables and fruits. There is always an alternative if one makes an effort, but I will not say that this path is easy or cheap.

there doesn't seem to be an official explanation, but it has only been proposed by the Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, which proposes that digital currencies such as cryptocurrencies can be adopted as legal tender. his proposal is to help the younger generation become active users of digital currencies, including on non-fungible token (NFT) platforms.

but this is something progress for the Malaysian state even though it is only a discourse, because previously the country had never recognized bitcoin, as a legal tender issued by the central bank. it means that there is progress at this time, they are willing to accept it because of the situation that made the change, because they have to follow developments.

Of course this will create good news for bitcoin and will add even more good news that will make many investors confident as more and more countries and large institutions accept bitcoin as legal tender.

Yes this could be another huge source of profit for their country so making it legal is one of the good decision they could ever do because imagine how big the cryptocurrency in terms of marketcap and for sure the benefits they can get out from it is huge to so maybe they should consider that and file a law about adopting it as well the proper education about its usage,scams and other more so that they can launch this to their country more smoothly.

The bitcoin movement is getting more and more widespread and this is certainly very good.
This means now Malaysia will be one of the pioneers if this is indeed approved, especially for those in Asia.
Now many countries have started to support and see that bitcoin is indeed one of the profitable things, so it's not wrong for them to do that because this is something very good to wait for in the future

Yesterday, if I'm not mistaken in the Economics section I saw about this news, Malaysia will adopt and treat Bitcoin as an asset or digital currency that can make transactions online.

I think the idea, the Malaysian minister's appeal against Bitcoin policy will have a positive impact on the Malaysian people and country, but there is a bad side and a negative for those who are not native Malaysians aka illegal immigrants, I believe if the Malaysian ministry's idea is approved by the Malaysian prime minister, I'm sure many companies in Malaysia will apply Bitcoin payments, it will make it difficult for illegal workers there, As far as I know, the work of workers in companies in Malaysia are mostly illegal immigrants who do not have official permission from the Malaysian government, that's what I'm worried about, it could be that illegal jobs that do not have exchanges licensed by the Malaysian government will be a disaster for them, because one of the conditions for registering on the crypto exchange is KYC, this will be a phenomenon of cutting illegal jobs in Malaysia.

The list of countries that accepts bitcoin as a legal tender is slowly growing. Before it was only one country El Salvador but now there are three new additions from your list and there is a new one here in the op. Although the three on your list didn't officially announced that they are now adopting btc as a legal tender, it is still considered because you can now use your btc directly on some service.

Toga is another country that is going to join the list but unfortunately they faced a problem there. No need to hurry though, what they did is right. They first need to prioritize the problem caused by tsunami before proceeding on legalizing btc as legal tender.

If they are going to implement their law in the same fashion as El Salvador did, I will not be a huge fan.

Let me be clear; I love what El Salvador is trying to do, but what they did was clearly not in regard to the people's interests. In El Salvador, this was a bill that was passed in the dead of night, without the people of El Salvador knowing what was really going on.

If Malaysia intends on making bitcoin legal tender, I hope they do it in a more open and transparent way.

Personally, I always wonder how such numbers or surveys are measured in such countries, since many people there live rather rural and poor and many also have no cell phones. Are there any accurate statistics on exactly how crypto currency ownership breaks down? So by strata of the population, age, gender, etc.?

My guess is that in those small countries they only have total population and the number of people registered at local exchanges, or similar things like that. Then they just divide them to get the rough percentage.

There are some stats from the US:

Yes, absolutely. We can see how it becomes realized in El Salvador and their citizens are then accepted so I expect the people from Malaysia will also be glad to finally see Bitcoin has been legalized.

I don't just think that the leader had followed El Salvador but probably, they see the economic help of crypto to the country and their people. I expect this to happen and besides, the majority of the ASIAN countries welcome crypto in their place, and not even hard for them to legalize it since they are already familiar with this.

Doesn’t seem a bad idea to me as long as the citizens in that county are good with it and are ready for it to be adopted as a legal tender. I have seen some surveys that are being carried out sometimes to get people’s  opinion on questions like this.

So, I don’t think that it is a bad idea to have it as a legal tender, but it would be a currency alongside the original fiat that is being used by that country.But there are still people who think that adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender in a country is a pure folly. That’s why I pointed out that before any government goes about doing this, they should be sure about it.

But sometimes I do worry about this adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender by some countries. It makes me wonder what would be the next step that the government is going to take after they are done with making it a legal tender. Would this be a step towards making bitcoin become centralized?

Yeah, I have seen news about the new strategy that the government might start to apply now, which has been the reason Coinbase CEO has advised cryptocurrency community to make sure that they stick with decentralized wallets. Bitcoin don’t have to be approved by the government before we can make use of it, anyone is free to use it.

Meh, the MOF rejected the proposal over the following reason:


Source: https://beincrypto.com/crypto-does-not-exhibit-money-characteristics-says-malaysia-deputy-finance-director/

Same as that Russian proposal to accept Bitcoin as payment for oil and gas. All big decisions start with proposals ;)

A few smart people said last year that it's only a matter of time before countries and big investment funds decide it's a good idea to have 1% in Bitcoin because they can afford to lose 1% but what if that 1% goes up 300% in a year? Also, what if their money gets frozen by a bank just like they froze people's money in Russia and before that in Cyprus. Funds get frozen byt with Bitcoin you can still pay people's wages, you can continue to operate while working on getting your money released. The same with rich people you can get into argument with a bank but it takes time and you could have some urgent expenses. Bitcoin takes care of that.

this is a very extraordinary thing where the country of Malaysia wants to propose cryptocurrency to be widely circulated in a legal transaction process.I am very sure that the state of Malaysia is one of the tourist destinations visited by many foreigners so it is not a problem. it is impossible that the world will be well received by many, then it can indirectly have a very good impact for the digital currency to continue to be at the peak of the highest popularity in the digital currency

^^^Ah, finally, missed the news where MOF rejected the proposal. Not that I'm siding with them but at least prevented another megalomaniac attempt to distract the government from what really needs reforms (the economy, for starters).

Besides, the ruling party (under whichever guise it wears) cannot, despite decades of Mahathirism, see itself as inviting unfavourable looks from IMF.

Reasonable enough.

they are taking risk to not take that risk accepting bitcoin as a legal tender. typical developing country, i'm pretty sure if they take that risk ... a dream to become high income country will get realized faster as things get connected with financial technology such cryptocurrency would encourage people to improve their own knowledge/abilities to get in the business and even more inventing a new business model.

Malaysian Minister Yamani Hafez Musa failed to give something specific that bitcoin and ethereum lacks to be used as a money. Just attributing volatility with ethereum and bitcoin stating these assets doesn't exhibit characteristics of money is simply a way to escape from adoption and support the development of country owned CBDC.

To be blunt, that country is a joke, especially when it comes to adopting new technology.

Red tapes, cronyism, you name it, they have it. Meanwhile neighboring countries like Singapore are hubs of some big names like CDC.

This is a pretty interesting topic, how the Malaysian government wants to legalize cryptocurrency as a legal transaction tool in a country based in Southeast Asia. We really hope that this can be realized soon, not just a discourse that has been expressed by several other governments by saying the same thing. the same but this has never been realized until now, moreover Malaysia is a developed country which currently has very rapid economic development I really hope that this can actually happen where bitcoin will become a legal transaction tool there

If I will say this is not a good idea I will be lying and you guys don't want to hear that don't you? Obviously making btc as a legal tender is always a pleasant idea to do for every country because people have already spoken that they love cryptos and to only way to maximize their use is if they can spend it directly.

This is going to be the last thing that people will request to their governments because as of now many governments are still skeptical if they will do it or not. I don't know what they are waiting for when there are already a few countries that proposes this and there is one country (El Salvador) that actually made it happen for real.