- he UK Treasury Select Committee has suggested that the country regulate cryptocurrency trading as a form of gambling rather than a financial service.
- The MPs said that digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether have “no intrinsic value and no useful social purpose,” claiming that they resemble gambling more than financial services.
- The influential panel of MPs said cryptocurrency trading and investing can be addictive like gambling.
- While acknowledging that the underlying blockchain technology could benefit the wider financial services industry, they said the process of betting on the volatile price of unbacked cryptocurrencies could lead consumers to lose life-changing sums of cash.
- The MPs said that regulating cryptocurrencies as gambling would be consistent with the government’s policy of “same risk, same regulatory outcome.”
Crypto Trading Should Be Classified as Gambling, UK MPs Say
By Coinschart