Has Zimbabwe Made U-turn on Bitcoin? Cryptopreneurs Still Skeptical
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Regardless Of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) stated that it will produce a regulatory sandbox for crypto business owners, regional market players cautioned not to get too ecstatic and advised to awaitresults
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In March, the bank revealed that it has begun preparing a policyframework
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“The framework, which is a regulatory sandbox, will be assessing the cryptocurrency companies as to how they are going to operate,” Chronicle reported at that time, pointing out Josephat Mutepfa, Deputy Director of Financial Markets and National Payment Systems at the RBZ.
Likewise in March, American business Apollo Fintech signed a memorandum of contract with government-owned CBZ to “develop and operate 3 national solutions” and among them is a gold-backed stablecoin.
Nevertheless, some regional crypto market players are still skeptical about these strategies.
“It’s not something to celebrate too early because it has been two years now and they are saying the same thing over and over again at conferences,” Self-confidence Nyirenda, Director of crypto exchange BitPaya and a former blockchain designer at Smartcash and Golix, informed Cryptonews.com
He added that the RBZ has overlooked options used by regional start-ups and now the main bank is welcoming designers from foreigncountries Nyirenda is worried that the market regulator will produce a severe regulatory environment for regional start-ups, while just big players may take advantage of the brand-new policies.
“Therefore, besides this being good news to the crypto and blockchain world, it might be a setback for local startups that helped create the community and the industry,” he believed.
On The Other Hand, Terrence Zimwara, Africa Manager in Chief at Africa Blockchain Media, believes that the RBZ will just deal with those business it can manage.
“You need to understand that the RBZ, just like other central banks on the continent, is not a big fan of privately issued digital currencies,” Zimwara stated, recommending to see and wait what actions will follow the current favorable declarations.
He likewise worried that with the Zimbabwean Dollar (ZWL) headed for another collapse, the RBZ requires to bring a financial option if it wishes to bring back self-confidence, and by dealing with the regional crypto neighborhood it has higher opportunities to discover much better options.
The yearly inflation rate in Zimbabwe was 540% in February this year.
Bitcoin discovers its method
On the other hand, according to regional players, crypto awareness is growing in the nation.
Regional crypto business owners informed Cryptonews.com that they think that crypto payments would assist increase liquidity in the market and “would have a really good impact on financial inclusion and would make payments cheaper.” Additionally, even regional tour guide warn that it’s hard to get ZWL in money.
Likewise, as more and more regional people learn about crypto and are utilizing it, the RBZ even prohibited regional banks from handling services associated with crypto in order to prevent capital flight.
Nevertheless, Zimbabweans are still discovering peer-to-peer methods to trade crypto.
“Nothing is done via banks. There are WhatsApp groups where people buy and sell crypto,” an operator of such groups informed Cryptonews.com
He declares he “interacts with about 2,000 people on the various groups that buy and sell bitcoin (BTC) on a daily basis.”
“Five years ago, when I got involved with cryptocurrency, 1 out of 100,000 understood what it was. Now, it’s probably 1 out of 1,000,” he concluded.
The RBZ did not react to our ask for comment.
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