British lawmakers have backed calls for greater regulation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in order to bring an element of control to a market that more resembles the "Wild West."
In a report on digital currencies published Wednesday, the Treasury Select Committee called for regulations to protect consumers and prevent money laundering.
Lawmakers highlighted a rapidly emerging industry that's been troubled by wild price swings, allegations of fraud and worries it could be used to finance criminal or terrorist activity.
Marshall Billingslea, an assistant treasury secretary who deals with terror financing, attends a OECD in Paris, Wednesday Sept.19, 2018. Billingslea says there is an urgent need for global rules to stop virtual currencies from being used by money launderers and terrorists. (AP PhotoJohn Leicester)
Virtual currencies, also known as tokens, are electronic alternatives to traditional money. The appeal of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin lies in their use of "blockchain technology" that records all transactions in a digital database while keeping identities private, allowing users to sidestep government or banking system oversight. Speculation has also played a part in their popularity: bitcoin's price skyrocketed late last year to more than $19,000 though it has since tumbled and is now trading at around $6,300.
In the report, the committee said the British government has taken an ambiguous position on regulation and argued that the industry's voluntary approach is inadequate. As a result, it said investors have been left open to risks including volatile prices and hacking vulnerabilities.
"Bitcoin and other crypto-assets exist in the Wild West industry of crypto-assets," committee chair Nicky Morgan said. "This unregulated industry leaves investors facing numerous risks."
Morgan said the government needs to do more than "bumble along issuing feeble warnings to investors."
The committee also said British financial authorities need more power to regulate misleading advertisements by crypto-asset exchanges and initial coin offerings, which raise money for the tokens while crypto exchanges allow investors to trade them or convert them into conventional money.
The committee's warning echo those of a senior U.S. Treasury official, who expressed similar sentiments while on a visit to Europe, saying that global rules are urgently needed to stop virtual currencies from being used by money launderers and terrorists.
In Paris, Marshall Billingslea, an assistant Treasury secretary who deals with terror financing, said the Islamic State group has used virtual currencies and published instructions on Twitter on how to move bitcoin to recipients in Syria.
This, he said, is "an example of a very worrisome trend-line that we see."
Billingslea, who was speaking in his capacity as president of the Financial Action Task Force, an international body that combats money laundering and other financial threats, said countries are applying differing anti-money laundering standards to cryptocurrencies and some are not applying any at all.
"It is essential that we establish a global set of standards that are applied in a uniform manner," Billingslea said.
The FATF, he added, is very concerned about the emerging use cryptocurrencies by terrorist organizations.
Financial regulators worldwide have been scrambling to deal with the rise of cryptocurrencies. In Asia, Japan recognizes bitcoin as a legal form of payment after enacting a strong regulatory regime while South Korea and China have also tightened regulations. Meanwhile, European Union officials said earlier this month that the bloc has been examining cryptocurrencies as it mulls regulations.
The British lawmakers said there's still room for the U.K. to become a global center for crypto-assets, if the government decides to take a regulatory approach that encourages the industry's growth.
AP Writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
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BERLIN (AP) — A prominent Berlin politician was violently assaulted and suffered injuries to her head and neck, police said Wednesday, in the latest attack on elected officials that raises concern over rising political violence in Germany.
Franziska Giffey, the city's top economic official, a former mayor and an ex-federal minister, was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on Tuesday by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing a hard device, police said.
Giffey was taken to a hospital and treated for head and neck pain, police said. A 74-year-old man was detained and police searched his home, police said. They said the suspect was known to police, but did not give any indication for a motive.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.
"Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy,” said Wegner, according to German news agency dpa. “We will not tolerate this. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and agitation and protect our democracy.”
Giffey wrote on Instagram that "we live in a free and democratic country in which everyone is free to express their opinion ... and yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, in whatever form.”
“They are a transgression of boundaries that we as a society must resolutely oppose,” she said.
Later on Wednesday, Giffey, protected by several bodyguards, told reporters at a public event in Berlin that she was feeling fine but that “we also have to make it possible for us to live in a country where those who bear social and political responsibility can move freely.”
Last week, a candidate from the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was beaten up in the eastern city of Dresden while campaigning for next month's election for the European Parliament and had to undergo surgery.
Police detained four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, and said that the same group had apparently attacked a Greens party worker minutes before they attacked Matthias Ecke. At least one of the teens is said to be linked to far-right groups, security officials said.
Also on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party politician was attacked by two people while putting up election posters in Dresden, dpa reported.
The incidents have raised political tensions in Germany.
Both government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months, and have called on police to step up protection for politicians and election rallies.
In February, the German Parliament said in a report there were a total of 2,790 attacks on elected representatives in 2023. Representatives of The Greens were disproportionally affected in 1,219 cases, those from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in 478 cases and representatives of the SPD in 420 cases.
The country's vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, who is a member of The Greens, was prevented from disembarking a ferry for hours by a group of angry farmers in January, and the vice president of the German Parliament, Katrin Goering-Eckardt, also from The Greens, was prevented from leaving an event in the state of Brandenburg last week when an angry crowd blocked her car.
Germany's federal interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said after a special meeting of the country's 16 state interior ministers on the issue of violence on Tuesday that possible measures included tightening Germany’s criminal law in order to "punish anti-democratic acts more severely,”
Many of the incidents have taken place in the former communist east of the country, where Scholz’s government is deeply unpopular. The Interior Ministry in the state of Saxony said it had registered 112 election-related crimes so far this year, including 30 against elected officials or representatives.
Mainstream parties have accused AfD of links to violent neo-Nazi groups and of fomenting an intimidating political climate. One of its leaders, Bjoern Hoecke, is currently on trial for using a banned Nazi slogan.
Alternative for Germany, which campaigns against immigration and European integration, is expected to make gains in the European polls as well as in elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.
Franziska Giffey, left, Berlin's top economic official leaves with security guards an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official leaves an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official leaves an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official speaks to media after an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey poses for media during an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official speaks to media after an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey, center left, Berlin's top economic official leaves an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official speaks to media after an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
FILE - Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey attends a commemoration for homosexual victims of the Holocaust, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
