Cairo - Mena
The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) did not issue permits to any body or person to establish a stock exchange for Bitcoin trading in Egypt, the authority's acting Chairman Reda Abdel Moaty asserted.
Establishing a stock market for Bitcoin trading in Egypt without getting necessary licenses constitutes a violation of the law, Abdel Moaty said in statements to MENA on Thursday.
The EFSA will sue whoever sets up such kind of bourses in the country, he added.
Bitcoin is a worldwide cryptocurrency and digital payment system invented by an unknown programmer, or a group of programmers, under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. It was released as open-source software in 2009. The system is peer-to-peer, and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary.
Also, Abdel Moaty stressed that the Egyptian capital market law had only authorized the establishment of the Egyptian Exchange and the Nile Stock Exchange for small and medium-sized enterprises.
In July, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) denied reports circulated about allowing the digital currency bitcoin to be dealt with in the Egyptian financial sector.
The Egyptian banking sector deal only with official currencies, the CBE noted.
Source: Mena