![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/shutterstock_1198448194-768x432.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A South African professor, Steven Boykey Sidley, has branded as \u201cbalderdash\u201d claims by the South African central bank deputy governor that \u201c90% of cryptocurrency transactions\u201d are illicit. The professor also accused the senior central bank official of spreading inaccurate information that \u201cdoes immeasurable damage to an important new industry.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n A South African university professor and author, Steven Boykey Sidley, has slammed Kuben Naidoo, the country\u2019s central bank deputy governor, for claiming that \u201c90% of cryptocurrency transactions\u201d are illicit. Describing Naidoo\u2019s claims as \u201cbalderdash,\u201d Sidley insisted the \u201creal stats are continuously assembled and reported by numerous data analytics companies\u201d and prove that only a tiny fraction of crypto transactions are tied to illicit activities.<\/p>\n In an opinion piece published<\/a> by the Daily Maverick, Sidley accuses the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) deputy governor of spreading \u201cmisinformation that ends up in news headlines and does immeasurable damage to an important new industry.\u201d To support this theory, Sidley points to the data provided by Chainalysis which suggests that only 0.15% of crypto transactions are tied to illicit activity.<\/p>\n For Sidley, who is also a co-author of the book titled \u201cBeyond Bitcoin: Decentralised Finance and the End of Banks,\u201d this figure is much lower when compared with illicit transactions that involve fiat currency.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, the number of transactions tied to illicit transactions in the real world of rands and dollars, where we live, is 5%. That\u2019s 50 times higher than crypto (and those are the only ones we know about),\u201d Sidley is quoted explaining.<\/p>\n According to the professor, because blockchain transactions are public, it is impossible to commit a crime that goes unnoticed. Sidley added that this level of transparency makes \u201ctracking the proceeds of crypto crime\u201d much easier.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sidley also offered his thoughts on the SARB\u2019s intention to regulate cryptocurrency as a financial asset. As previously reported<\/a> by Bitcoin.com News, the SARB expects to have a crypto regulatory framework in place by the end of 2023. According to Sidley, such a regulatory framework removes the uncertainty that currently afflicts the entire industry and allows institutions like banks to get into \u201cthis asset and service space.\u201d<\/p>\n While such a regulatory framework is expected to create some level of certainty, Sidley argued it will expose an even bigger problem that awaits the industry \u2014 the regulation of cryptocurrency with laws passed more than a century ago. He said:<\/p>\n What the Sarb (and every other regulator) is trying to do is to shoehorn crypto into existing regulations designed many decades ago for assets that are hundreds of years old \u2014 stocks, currencies, commodities, collectables and the like. It is not going to work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sidley insisted that these entirely new asset classes need to be \u201cdefined properly before the whole field can be rationally regulated.\u201d<\/p>\nOnly 0.15% of Crypto Transactions Are Tied to Illicit Activity<\/h2>\n
Attempting to Regulate a New Asset Class With Old Laws Will Not Work<\/h2>\n
\n