Uzbekistan Blocks User Access to Foreign Crypto Exchanges

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The Uzbekistan authorities don’t trust foreign crypto exchanges.

National Agency of Perspective Projects of the Republic of Uzbekistan (NAPP), a cryptocurrency regulator in Central Asia’s country, has blocked users from accessing unlicensed crypto exchanges and their services.

According to the statement shared on August 10th, the citizens are prohibited to trade “crypto-assets on foreign electronic platforms” until January 1st, 2023.

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However, even after this date, residents will be able to use only national service providers. The Agency’s statement noted:

<…> since January 1, 2023, citizens and legal entities of the Republic of Uzbekistan can carry out operations on the purchase, sale, and (or) exchange of crypto-assets solely through the national service providers in the manner prescribed by the legislative acts.

The NAPP was urged to take action after recently many unlicensed crypto exchanges started actively operating in the country. According to the statement, these exchanges require personal information, which does not comply with the requirements stated by the country.

Additionally, they have no legal responsibility for transactions with crypto-assets and cannot guarantee the legitimacy of transactions, as well as the proper storage and protection of confidentiality of personal data of citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

One of the largest crypto exchanges, Binance, has been affected by this decision.

Binance’s head of Easter Europe, Gleb Kostarev, noted that users were not able to access their website since August 9th. Kostarev added that crypto exchanges like FTX, Huobi, and Bybit are also restricted.

According to sources, Binance is seeking to get registered as a crypto exchange provider in the Republic of Uzbekistan. However, the result of the negotiations is yet to be clear.

Based on the news report written by Forklog, Uzbekistan has registered only one crypto exchange from its country, UZNEX.

Back in July 2018, Uzbekistan authorities issued a law, which required “crypto mining pools, exchanges, custodians and crypto-shops” to be licensed before starting to provide their services in the country.