The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) is viewing cryptocurrency as a potential liability and there are chances that it could be banned from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in the coming week. The rise of the cryptocurrency was very impressive to watch. The cryptocurrencies became a buzzword among the financial specialists, bloggers and major news sites for good reason.
The leader among all, Bitcoin gained unprecedented value and popularity throughout the year of 2017. It started around $800 at the beginning of the year and reached as high as $10,000 later on. By December, it topped around $20,000 and then came back t $16,000. Not only Bitcoin, there are other currencies which also gained the steam like Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero. With all this growth among the digital currencies, many major financial institutions, governments and exchanges have struggled to find what role the cryptocurrencies can and will play in the financial system. While some praised the rise of the digital currencies, there were others who dismissed the currencies as a bubble on the verge of popping.
The Israel Security Authority has seemed to take a hard line towards cryptocurrencies because of their volatility. In short, the ISA is aiming to ban all the cryptocurrencies from the Israel Stock Exchange. This week the Israel Securities Authority stated that they intended to ban new listings and existing cryptocurrency businesses on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The chairman of ISA, Shmuel Hauser, announced at the Calcalist business conference, hosted in New York, that he would be putting together a proposal as early as possible to initiate a ban on the crypto firms. Companies who have cryptocurrencies as their main source of business will not be allowed on the TASE.
Hauser did not specifically mention any companies that will be a part of the ban. There have already been two major companies that have been identified as businesses that heavily rely on the digital currencies or the technology behind them. Fantasy Networks and the natural resource company turned Bitcoin mining company, Blockchain mining. It had stock prices fall after the announcement since both the companies are falling under the set of rules of the upcoming ban. Though it is sure to harm investment in the companies, Hauser has made his stance clear on the crypto-firms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC6cqdinrSU
The aim of putting the ban on cryptocurrencies is to protect the investors. Most investors and institutions lack the knowledge that what place cryptocurrencies play in the financial system because of the unpredictability of the currencies. Some would even argue that cryptocurrencies many not even be around in a few years.
Hauser also shares the same opinion. He said, “We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don’t want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty,” he continued, “There is an importance to signal to the market where things are… Investors should know where we stand.”