Down in Bogotá, cryptocurrency adoption is raging on. Colombia’s tax authority, the DIAN, (Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales de Colombia) has begun to catch up. It seeks to take “special measures” to crack the whip on cryptocurrency tax avoiders.
In a statement released on Friday, the DIAN stated that it would attempt to better regulate the cryptocurrency space and work toward a more “honest” Colombia. The statement admits that Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency use is growing worldwide: “Currently, operations with crypto assets are a reality worldwide and with the boom in the use of so-called virtual currencies or cryptocurrencies, the DIAN has initiated actions aimed at to control the taxpayers who carry out operations with them.”
Currently, Colombia’s laws dictate that its financial institutions are prohibited from protecting, investing, brokering or managing cryptocurrency operations. However, Colombian citizens can invest, and some legacy financial institutions are paving the way for greater adoption of cryptocurrencies in the country known as the “gateway to South America.”
In March of last year, one of Colombia’s oldest banks, Banco de Bogotá, surprised incumbents, announcing it would explore crypto-related services as part of a regulatory sandbox project. The Winklevoss twins’ Gemini trading firm has since partnered with a rival bank, Bancolombia, for clients to trade four crypto assets: Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).