Malaysian Minister: Bitcoin Should Be Legal Tender

Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency should become legal tender in Malaysia, according to the deputy minister of the country’s Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

“We hope the government can allow this,” Zahidi Zainul Abidin said in Parliament on Monday (March 21), per a report by Bloomberg News.

The ministry is responsible for Malaysia’s digital and broadcasting sectors, overseeing everything from launching 5G mobile networks to wooing tech investments. Zahidi did not go into specifics about what role the ministry would have in digital assets.

Financial regulation in Malaysia is the job of its Finance Ministry, although the country’s Ministry of Housing and Local Government also has jurisdiction over “digital financial activities,” Zahidi told Parliament.

Read more: Cross-Border CBDCs Being Piloted in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa

Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, has yet to take a formal position on adopting bitcoin as legal tender, but has said it’s studying the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In September, the bank joined forces with its counterparts from Australia, Singapore and South Africa to conduct a cross-border test run of CBDC.

Read more: Volatility, Political Turmoil Put El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bond Plans in Further Jeopardy

To date, just one country has made bitcoin legal tender: El Salvador. And as Bloomberg notes, the results of that experiment have been mixed. A survey by the country’s Chamber of Commerce published this month found that just 14% of businesses had used bitcoin in transactions since the country began recognizing it as legal tender September.

And as PYMNTS reported earlier this month, the decision to make bitcoin legal tender also appears to be keeping the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from green-lighting a sorely-needed $1.3 billion loan that would keep El Salvador from defaulting on a $800 million bond payment due early next year.