Why is cryptocurrency illegal in some countries?

[BigBos]

The problem will not be too far away with the bitcoin system that uses decentralization as their reference which of course this will make many people who may become uncontrolled by the government, especially in terms of their finances, therefore in order to minimize this concern there will definitely be several regulations implemented, the last of which is definitely a ban.
The conflicting visions of bitcoin and the desire for full government control in centralization so that the presence of bitcoin can disturb those who make legalization sure to happen but for now and maybe for the future I think more and more countries will adopt bitcoin and not legalize bitcoin in their territory.

[panganib999]

Cause they either see it as a money-laundering machine, a tax evasion mechanism for people who don't want to pay taxes, or just flat out misinformation (e.g. Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme yadda yadda).

the US has seen crypto as the latter, and for good reason, no thanks to SBF, Do Kwon, and a buncha other stupid mofos who see crypto as nothing but a cash cow they can milk without anybody suspecting them. And even though this was the case you can't really say that they are in the right either, there's much to unpack about crypto than just "it's a fucking scam" or whatever is going on in their heads these days, so we can't really just take the hits. I say we let them for now, it's bear season anyway and we'd not have much energy to battle these misinformation, let's take a stand and do something about it when the market's looking a little more sunny, and watch as these freakazoids flock upon bitcoin like it's the last hotdog stand in town.

[GreatArkansas]

You can ask the president of those countries, not users in this forum.

Since I'm not one of the president in those countries, my assumption is centralized entity don't want to let their citizen to use Bitcoin to evade tax or safe/invest that related to centralization e.g. fiat, stock, gold, real estate.

Reasons could be generic here, we can say it could be because of the common problem of using cryptocurrency, like lack of regulation and money laundering or terrorism financing, or another country just wants to protect their people because we all know scams and frauds using cryptocurrency is very high.

[Hispo]

The actual reason for some countries to explicitly outlaw Bitcoin is their fear to citizens having the power to manage their finances in a decentralized way, without the intervention of the state.

It is not a coincidence two of the most authoritarian countries: China and Russia have both declared their hostility towards Bitcoin and other decentralized assets, because they want their people to depend on the big brother, it seems.

The money laundering and ecological talking points do not convince me, since the US dollar is still the asset preferred by criminals and there are other industries on this planet which are more harmful to environment than BTC is.

[Miles2006]

Why blaming the government always, for the fact that bitcoin has become more valuable in our society today we should be aware of scammers.
   And because of the value of bitcoin scammers has crip into bitcoin, people now see bitcoin as a scam, people now passing the wrong information about bitcoin, stories like I invested my money on this platform and have not seen my money.
Coming to the government, the government see the value of bitcoin as not trust worthy as the value of bitcoin remains changing.
Lastly everyone has been contributing this last one, the government does not want you to be in full control of your money while bitcoin allows you to be the owner of your money.

[vitya1982]

Why blaming the government always, for the fact that bitcoin has become more valuable in our society today we should be aware of scammers.
   And because of the value of bitcoin scammers has crip into bitcoin, people now see bitcoin as a scam, people now passing the wrong information about bitcoin, stories like I invested my money on this platform and have not seen my money.
Coming to the government, the government see the value of bitcoin as not trust worthy as the value of bitcoin remains changing.
Lastly everyone has been contributing this last one, the government does not want you to be in full control of your money while bitcoin allows you to be the owner of your money.

There were always scammers, long time before Bitcoin. It's not the reason governments making it illegal, it's just an excuse.

[Ayers]

The actual reason for some countries to explicitly outlaw Bitcoin is their fear to citizens having the power to manage their finances in a decentralized way, without the intervention of the state.

It is not a coincidence two of the most authoritarian countries: China and Russia have both declared their hostility towards Bitcoin and other decentralized assets, because they want their people to depend on the big brother, it seems.

The money laundering and ecological talking points do not convince me, since the US dollar is still the asset preferred by criminals and there are other industries on this planet which are more harmful to environment than BTC is.

I think there is only one reason why some governments ban bitcoin, and that is because it is decentralized, so they cannot control it. In addition, reasons such as money laundering, criminals taking advantage of it to circumvent the law, and polluting the environment...are all just bullshit reasons because they don't dare to declare to everyone that they can't control it.

The government is a completely centralized system and their power comes from that, if people switch to using a decentralized system, they will gradually lose power, even collapse. Therefore, it is very normal for them to be afraid of bitcoin.

[Nrcewker]

Cryptos are mainly not legal in many countries because it’s decentralised nature doesn’t allow the government to control the coins. Due to the decentralised nature, no government or ruling body can know how many Bitcoins a person is holding. As they cannot control the cryptocurrencies, hence they cannot impose tax on it. This is the primary reason for which Bitcoins or cryptocurrencies are not legal in many countries.

[posi]

In many countries, it isn't illegal, however the countries that have made it illegal do so for many reasons, volatility is one of the most often cited reasons

Bitcoin is volatile and this is one of the core reasons why we can earn from it because it renders us the opportunity to make profits each time the price rises and those that Invested take this advantage in it, initially, the government thought about it that when the market dumps and people are loosing their asset values, it's take away their money and such is nothing more different from a ponzi scheme, they also believed that scammers are the ones that uses this digital currency to do evil acts, but now bitcoin is being recognized allover and people are accepting it as a digital currency even though many countries are yet to adopt it use as a legal tender.

I don't think bitcoin's volatility is a reason for governments to ban bitcoin and worry about people there suffering losses, because bitcoin is not a uniquely volatile asset. Any financial market that has fluctuations and losses is part of the financial market. Many people fall into poverty, lose their homes, and even commit suicide when investing in losses in the stock market, so why not ban it? I agree with most of the comments here, the government banned bitcoin simply because it's decentralized and they can't control it.

But more and more countries are accepting bitcoin as governments realize that bans don't work and cost them tax revenue. So they legalized it with a series of regulations to tax people more conveniently.

[BabyBandit]

Insecurity from a government that the citizens will stop using their product (shitty banks) and instead using bitcoin, so instead of making their product better, they doing some communism at is best and make the better product illegal. Shameless and lazy.
as simple as that.

[Bitco55]

Crypto has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. It's volatility  and decentralization are setbacks,  but I don't think that's all the reasons for its ban.

Now in some countries like Qatar, it's been termed as "illegal" and banned cause, it's pseudonymity makes it easy to be used for illegal activities e.g. funding terrorism, and money laundering, and they have strict laws against it to prevent these crimes.

Meanwhile, some other countries like China see Bitcoin as a threat to its security, political power, national currency, and sovereignty from foreign affairs. They don't want any alternative currency that would undermine their economic stability and monetary policies.

Others consider it to be against their religion and moral values. Such countries are usually Islamic ones as they believe that it is prohibited to use any currency that isn't backed up by assets such as gold silver...

[forexandcryptoauditor]

There seem to be multiple reasons behind it. Governments dont want to have a parallel financial system which may put in danger their said banking system. Having encrypted wallet addresses, governments can not track the transactions and thus loosing the tax amount which could be a huge addition to the reserve banks. This also encourages money laundering which no government wants to attract.
Having said so, governments are not able to control the engagements of the people in in cryptocurrencies, they feel the easiest way is to ban or at least not to legalize.
I believe, soon many countries can impose some regulations to adopt cryptocurrencies because it can not ignore the possibilities and developments through blockchain technology.

[Zanab247]

Don't forget that what good for Mr A may not good for Mr B for different reasons OP. I think those countries that made BTC legal are those countries who their representative are well educated and they know what decentralized currency can do to improve their economy and also reduce unemployment in the land, if they make it legal. BTC and cryptocurrency was legal in my country that made many youths to gain more opportunities to created many jobs and businesses in the country, but kidnappers were no longer collecting fiat money from victims because they will be trace by the force men in the country that made them to start demanding for cryptocurrency or BTC for ransom so that nobody can trace were the money enter that made our governor of the central bank to banned cryptocurrency and BTC in the country. There is a hope for my country because, our new president is a someone that is well educated and he cherish decentralized currency so much which are some of the signs that made us to believe that decentralized currency will soon be legal again in our country.

[Blitzboy]

The actual reason for some countries to explicitly outlaw Bitcoin is their fear to citizens having the power to manage their finances in a decentralized way, without the intervention of the state.

It is not a coincidence two of the most authoritarian countries: China and Russia have both declared their hostility towards Bitcoin and other decentralized assets, because they want their people to depend on the big brother, it seems.

The money laundering and ecological talking points do not convince me, since the US dollar is still the asset preferred by criminals and there are other industries on this planet which are more harmful to environment than BTC is.

Have you considered understanding the full context of these nations' decisions any thought? It is not as simple as it seems.

Countries might be concerned about possible instability in addition to their dread of decentralization. Its simple to say its about control, but its also about keeping their financial systems in order. Is big brother really the only thing watching? Isnt that a heated debate? You're true; major participants in the challenges you highlighted also include the US dollar and other businesses. You have a point, but what about the bigger picture? It has several layers and is intricate.

[macson]

bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are still considered by the majority of governments in many countries as tools that are often used by criminals to transact and launder their money, which imo is a stupid thing that is difficult for governments to eliminate even though fiat money has always been a tool criminal transactions during this time.  Bitcoin was created to improve the world's financial system and to protect the value of investment assets owned by investors, throughout the world support for Bitcoin will continue to make Bitcoin exist, there will be no reason for Bitcoin to return to zero or die, its value will always be there, even though all world governments hate bitcoin.

[Bushdark]

Cryptos are mainly not legal in many countries because it’s decentralised nature doesn’t allow the government to control the coins. Due to the decentralised nature, no government or ruling body can know how many Bitcoins a person is holding. As they cannot control the cryptocurrencies, hence they cannot impose tax on it. This is the primary reason for which Bitcoins or cryptocurrencies are not legal in many countries.

Since some countries see crypto as a thread to there local currency, they tend to block the advancement of cryptocurrency in there region so that people would not consider Bitcoin as a good options to trade and make transactions making the local currency less worth using for transactions. Sometimes, this may not be the case, if the government find out that Bitcoin could pose a threat to there economy they would want to look for any means to block there advancement of Bitcoin in there regions. China had ban Bitcoin many times and unban it too for reasons best know to tye government..

[goldkingcoiner]

Because with cryptocurrency, government tyranny is completely non-enforceable (unless you live in North Korea.). If people want to own cryptocurrency (especially Bitcoin) instead of the endlessly printed fiat, then fiat will become even more worthless than it currently is. Say what you want about about Bitcoin, but the governments lack of regulatory power over it is exactly why it is worth so much. Its value is a true reflection of that. Another reflection would be the governments continued failings at trying to regulate it.

After all these years you would think they would give up. But they created the CBDC instead. Lol.

Bitcoin is freedom. Not all countries want that.

[Litzki1990]

Each country has not approved cryptocurrencies in their country for different reasons. The government of some countries may not want the people of their country to keep money in crypto currency instead of keeping money in the bank, while the government of some country may think that more criminal acts may be committed through crypto currency and to prevent that crime, the government of some country does not allow Bitcoin in their country. And the governments of those countries whose economic conditions are economic class do not want their countries to be transacted through bitcoin or cryptocurrencies because they may think that if their countries allow bitcoin or cryptocurrencies they will not be able to maintain their economic conditions.

[aylabadia05]

Why is cryptocurrency illegal in some countries?

My negative opinion towards them is because of the fear of not being able to share in the profits if they legalize it. The government runs a government system with their control over all aspects including economic aspects. They want complete control of the financial system.
If they legalize Bitcoin as legal tender, they can't control it. Some cryptocurrencies that get controlled may not be so strict.
Who knows what their fears are about Bitcoin, they are trying hard on a CBDC that I don't believe will be completely successful.

Inflation protection, due to inflation the value of so many currencies drops with this many people see cryptocurrency as offering protection against inflation. Bitcoin has a hard cap on the whole number of coins that will ever be minted.

Saylor said Bitcoin is a lifeline by attaching this image. ^{[ 1 ]}

[BITCOIN4X]

Why is cryptocurrency illegal in some countries?

My negative opinion towards them is because of the fear of not being able to share in the profits if they legalize it. The government runs a government system with their control over all aspects including economic aspects. They want complete control of the financial system.
If they legalize Bitcoin as legal tender, they can't control it. Some cryptocurrencies that get controlled may not be so strict.
Who knows what their fears are about Bitcoin, they are trying hard on a CBDC that I don't believe will be completely successful.

You are right, that is the most reasonable reason as to why the government is not legalizing it. But governments often don't state this main reason because they argue there are specific reasons why bitcoin should not be legalized as currency. We often hear that bitcoin are used for illegal actions that violate the law, but that is the other side they talk about the use cases of bitcoin.

Misuse of bitcoin has been the main reason why governments don't legalize it, but I'm sure it's not the main reason they should reveal. The government's supposed inability to control bitcoin is the main reason why they don't want to legalize it.