The law contains 107 articles. Article No.1 provides: “The object of this law is the regulation of the issuance of digital tokens and/or virtual currencies, licensing, monitoring and the supervision of entities that exercise the activity of distribution, trading and storage of digital tokens and/or virtual currencies, of the digital tokens agent, of the provider of innovative services and collective investment schemes.
The new law follows prior remarks in 2017 from the Bank of Albania, which provided that the then-legal and regulatory framework in place did not envisage carrying out operations with cryptocurrency in Albania and users were exposed to certain risks. The Bank noted risks due to the high degree of anonymity, transactions in such currency may be misused for criminal activities, including money laundering, terrorism financing, or the smuggling of goods. [1]
Most jurisdictions and authorities have yet to enact laws governing cryptocurrencies, meaning that, for most countries, the legality of crypto mining remains unclear.
Under the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), crypto miners are considered money transmitters, so they may be subject to the laws that govern that activity. In Israel, for instance, crypto mining is treated as a business and is subject to corporate income tax. In India and elsewhere, regulatory uncertainty persists, although Canada and the United States are relatively friendly to crypto mining.
However, apart from jurisdictions that have specifically banned cryptocurrency-related activities, very few countries prohibit crypto mining.
Our Freeman Law Cryptocurrency Law Resource page provides a summary of the legal status of cryptocurrency for each country across the globe with statutory or regulatory provisions governing cryptocurrency. The globe below provides links to country-by-country summaries:
