No Cryptocurrency Regulation in Fiji

There are no regulations and supervision to safely navigate cryptocurrency in Fiji and the Pacific, says Matthew Watson, United Nations Office on Drug and Crime Pacific Advisor for Cybercrime in the Pacific.

Mr Watson is responsible for the augmentation of the region’s cyber investigations, including approaches to digital evidence and forensics, child sexual exploitation and abuse investigations, virtual asset regulation, prevention education and cyber safety.

Prior to this, he was a major crime forensic scientist, with an extensive background in traditional and digital forensic science.

During the National Conference on Cybercrime and e-evidence for Prosecutors in Nadi on Thursday, Mr Watson conducted presentation on cybercrime and trends in the Pacific.

He said there were a lot of benefits of cryptocurrency and digital currency.

“It can really help banking system and trading money and transferring money a lot easier,” Mr Watson said.

He said there were many risks with this currency in the Pacific because there were no regulations.

“In the Pacific we don’t have regulations and supervision at the moment to safely navigate that currency.”

He said crypto assets were risky investments because their value could rise and fall suddenly and significantly.

“There are so many risks for this to be exploited, particularly if the individuals trading for the currency got scammed or infatuation in the market.

“It is the awareness of those at risk, firstly and secondly if they have the protection from the traditional banking system, like BSP or Wespac,” he said.

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