Belarus pushes for tighter crypto rules as President Lukashenko loses patience

President Aleksandr Lukashenko reportedly issued an ultimatum to his government, demanding long-overdue cryptocurrency oversight mechanisms after a state audit revealed half of all citizen investments sent abroad fail to return.

On September 5, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency reported that during a high-level government conference, President Aleksandr Lukashenko delivered a pointed critique of his administration’s failure to implement comprehensive cryptocurrency regulations, directives he originally issued back in 2023.

The President’s urgency came after a damning report from the State Control Committee, which conducted an unscheduled inspection of crypto platform operators. The audit uncovered significant violations in financial operation registrations and a startling statistic: monetary assets from Belarusian investors transferred to foreign platforms do not return in approximately half of all cases, a situation Lukashenko flatly declared “won’t do.”

“This is why back in 2023 I gave a number of instructions to ensure comprehensive regulation of the sphere of digital tokens and cryptocurrencies. However, I still don’t have approved documents on my table,” Lukashenko said.

A push to balance innovation with control

For President Lukashenko, the imperative for robust crypto regulation transcends mere market oversight; it encompasses national economic security and technological sovereignty. He articulated that the rapid evolution of “digital life is essentially starting to get ahead of the law,” necessitating the creation of new branches of legislation.

Currently, the primary regulatory body for digital assets in Belarus is the Hi-Tech Park (HTP), the country’s flagship IT and special economic zone. The HTP has operated under the framework of Digital Economy Development Ordinance No. 8, which has provided a foundational, albeit now deemed insufficient, legal environment for the creation, emission, and trading of tokens.

Lukashenko acknowledged the HTP’s role but made it clear that its current mandate is inadequate for the comprehensive oversight now required, signaling an imminent shift that will likely involve traditional state agencies taking a more prominent role alongside the HTP.

According to the report, the specific rules advocated by the president, as detailed in the conference, focus on establishing “transparent rules of the game and mechanisms for control.”

His instructions call for defining the key, principled moments of new regulations that would guarantee financial stability and security for the state, its citizens, and the private sector. Crucially, Lukashenko emphasized that these mechanisms must allow “bona fide commercial entities from Belarus and foreign investors to continue working calmly in our digital haven.”