A couple weeks ago, the banks here in Chile spooked us all when they announced that they were shutting down all accounts belonging to cryptocurrency exchanges. The exchanges that were subject to these account closures quickly formed a lobby and went right to work on seeking a resolution. Fortunately, they've just scored a victory that will allow them to keep their accounts open and continue doing business while a trial is conducted to consider the banks' concerns.
Economy Minister José Ramón Valente specifically indicated his support for cryptocurrencies when he declared them to be "an important innovation that is happening in the world." He said this following the Court for the Defense of Free Competition ordered BancoEstado and Itaú to re-open the accounts that they closed. He went on to say that "we cannot stay out of these innovations. If we give cryptocurrencies a chance and they fail, well, they will fail."
The banks could appeal the court's ruling but spokesmen from the exchanges have stated that they are confident that the court will uphold its decision.
This is a big relief to us at Fort Galt because most of our international sales are conducted with cryptocurrencies and we'd hate to have to go back to using grossly antiquated mechanisms like bank wire transfers. We're happy to see that the new government seems to by crypto-friendly and I think we can look forward to a huge year for bitcoin adoption in Chile ahead.
This is huge news for us all and I strongly believe this will help the Chilean people as well as their government a great deal over time.
Thanks a lot for sharing, namaste :)
This is a great decision for us, the crypto community. Congratulations.
Hi piedpiper,
Good to see some one stood up for Cryptocurrencies being able to be adopted in Chile.
Banks allow politicians to have accounts but not crypto. You will see these same banks begging to join crypto soon.
Hmmm.... You would think that regimes in notoriously-socialist South America would be more inclined even than the U.S.cabal to support their central bank by attacking/regulating cryptos.
Very interesting, and very welcomed news!
You're on the @abusereports naughty list! Bad Steemian!