The UK Treasury announced plans to decisively regulate crypto-currencies in order to prevent money laundering and tax evasion.

No specific details of future regulatory standards are yet known, but they will include practices to combat money laundering - AML and KYC.

Regulatory norms should enter into force before the end of 2017 or early 2018. Extended rules that comply with EU directives are intended to limit the level of confidentiality possible when working with crypto currency. According to John Mann, the head of one of the committees of the Treasury:.

These new forms of exchange are rapidly spreading, and we need to make sure that we are not lagging behind - this is especially important in terms of combating money laundering, terrorism or fraud.

I want to be sure that the regulators are not late and that there is no regulatory gap in our country.

Regulators of other countries As the popularity of bitcoin grows, the need to regulate work with crypto-currencies is becoming more acute for governments of different countries and they all react in different ways. China, Russia and some other countries have followed the path of repression, while countries such as Switzerland and Malta seem much more open.