(Bloomberg) — Zimbabwe has asked for public input on cryptoasset operations as it works on regulatory policy for the sector.
“In line with global trends and best practices, Zimbabwe is embarking on an exercise to assess and understand the cryptocurrency landscape,” the government said in a statement published in state-run Herald newspaper Wednesday. It’s “inviting all cryptocurrency service providers,” whether operating in or outside the country but giving services to customers in the nation, to make comments.
As part of the assessment process, the government has set up a committee to consult operators in the virtual-asset ecosystem, and it wants comments by June 26.
The southern African nation last year issued a gold-backed virtual token as part of efforts to end decades of financial chaos. In April, the landlocked country launched a new currency known as ZiG — short for Zimbabwe Gold — in its sixth attempt to have a functioning local unit in 15 years. It replaced the Zimbabwean dollar, which had crashed several times since it was reintroduced in 2019, fanning inflation.
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Since 1999, the country has been locked out of international capital markets after defaulting on its debts, and it’s trying to reorganize about $19.2 billion owed to creditors, including $13 billion to international investors.
The statistics agency started computing inflation with ZiG as a base in May. Consumer prices fell 2.4% in that month from April, the organization said.
Inflation was 57.5% in April, based on a blended measure of the now-abandoned Zimbabwean dollar and the US currency.
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