Despite the growing popularity of cryptocurrency in Latin America, the banking regulator, finance ministry, and the central bank of Mexico have come together to ban cryptocurrency from the country’s finance system. Arturo Herrera, the Finance Minister of Mexico, declared that cryptocurrency use is hereby prohibited from the financial framework of Mexico. During a conference with the Financial Action Task Force, Herrera stated that the cryptocurrency ban in the country would not be lifted anytime soon. The authorities stated that cryptocurrency is not a legal tender in the country and is not considered a currency according to the prevalent laws and regulations.
The authorities of Mexico prohibited the use of cryptocurrency right after Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the third-richest person of the country, declared that his bank, Banco Azteca, shall allow Bitcoin transactions. The Bitcoin bull, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, is the head of Salinas Group and the owner of the bank, Banco Azteca. He is currently working on accepting Bitcoin at his bank that is now prohibited in the country. The finance minister’s statement is not explicitly linked with Ricardo’s decision, but it was made within a few hours of the announcement regarding Banco Azteca’s acceptance of Bitcoin.
According to the statement made by the finance ministry, the financial institutions of the country are not permitted to operate cryptocurrency-related services for their customers. The ministry also warned the citizens against the use of cryptocurrency as crypto-assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and more are speculative assets that are highly volatile and therefore hardly suited as a financial reserve. Moreover, Mexican law has also prohibited using stablecoins and other financial schemes powered by Blockchain technology. The ministry will soon be publishing a four-page long communique to make the cryptocurrency prohibition statements clearer to the general public.
