On May 26, 2021, the investigating judge at the Monastir Court of First Instance decided to close the case and ordered the release of the 17-year-old young man, recently arrested in Tunisia, for having used cryptocurrency in connection with of an online activity.
Economic expert Ezzedine Saïdane explained to “JDD Tunisia” that “we are in a country which does not need” Bitcoin “as much as it needed” Paypal “, because” Bitcoin “includes a great risk of loss or this which is called, in financial discourse, volatility (parameter that aims to quantify risk) ”
He added that “the government needs to revise the Foreign Exchange and Trade Code to overcome the economic barrier facing young people working in startups”
It should be mentioned that according to the official website of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT), the regulation of foreign exchange and foreign trade is based on the foreign exchange code, as promulgated by law n ° 76-18 of January 21, 1976 , Law n ° 94-41 of 7 March 1994 relating to foreign trade and their implementing texts.
Several solutions have been proposed to put an end to the ambiguity of the “Bitcoin” situation in Tunisia such as the bill, proposed by Yassine Ayari, aimed at regulating all digital currencies including “Bitcoin” while taking into account consideration the protection of the state from the risks of money laundering.
In a statement to “JDD Tunisia”, the director general of the Technical Telecommunications Agency (ATT) Jamel Zenkri clarified that there are two different approaches to thinking when talking about “bitcoin”: The first assumes that this cryptocurrency is not a foreign currency and the other sees the opposite.
In other words, from a legal point of view, there is “a legislative void” and in this case, the judge’s verdict is a personal effort since there is no precise and clear legal text in direct relation. with the “bitcoin”
It should be noted that a “Bitcoin” is today worth 98,868.06 Tunisian dinars according to “Morningstar for Currency” and “Coinbase for Cryptocurrency”
