Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, stated that international regulatory action on cryptocurrencies is "inevitable." Lagarde, also said that the IMF's concerns over cryptocurrencies stem largely from their potential use in illicit financial activities. In an interview with CNNMoney on Feb. 11, she said:
"We are actively engaging in anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. And that reinforces our determination to work on those two directions."
I'll contend: regulation by central banks is far from inevitable.
The IMF represents central banks. They do not control the entire world, although they love to behave as if they do. They don't control russia. That's one world power which could choose to deregulate crypto as we have seen BTC-E go unregulated for a very long time before it was shutdown by actions outside russia. The IMF and central bankers may also have lost control of the UK under the brexit movement. Bankers could lose control of Catalan if the independence movement is successful. There are similar independence movements around the globe which could thwart centralized control on the global scale the IMF and central bankers claim to possess.
Then there are nations like hungary, iceland and others who have kicked the IMF out of their country, or imprisoned bankers and no longer bow to the influence of central banks.
Lagarde may be correct in that someday all crypto might be regulated. But I think she's implying central banks and organizations like the IMF will regulate *everything* which is not necessarily the case.
I agree that people tend to over blow their effort based on the little popularity that they have enjoyed over the years and that is what IMF is doing. I also admit that there are millions of transactions being carried on under the radar and even some countries don't give any attention to whatever IMF or any of the world organisation is doing or says their own country interest comes first beyond any other thing.
However, there is also no reason not to just call bluff of what she is saying while IMF is the collaboration of Central Banks as you have noted, there could be some level of influence at that point. It is generally agreed that crypto needs to be regulated and when this is communicated at that point, it is then left for individual countries to determine how far they want to go in implementing that. Don't also forget, that all of international money processing organisations falls under the purview of the IMF which means that they could frustrate every activities otherwise or even sanction countries that violates this rules especially countries not among the super powers.
Also, a lot of people don't know the route to operate under the radar and that is where the effect will start being felt in the entire industry.
