As the world’s largest and most important financial hub, New York has been a pioneer in the growth of bitcoin, which was introduced in 2009.
With the digital currency, businesses can now accept payments and send and receive payments in real time and with no intermediaries.
In January this year, the New York Department of Financial Services said that the bitcoin sector was worth $12bn.
It was the biggest one-time gain for the crypto-currency in its history.
But this has also brought its fair share of controversy.
The technology is highly volatile, with one bitcoin worth over $1,000 being worth more than $400bn today.
The blockchain is the technology underpinning the bitcoin system.
In this new world, banks and governments have become increasingly concerned about the risks posed by bitcoin.
They are starting to adopt the technology in their own business transactions.
In addition, governments have begun to clamp down on foreign companies working with bitcoin.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently wrote to the chairman of the New Jersey Central Bank, who has jurisdiction over bitcoin, asking him to consider a proposed regulation that would prohibit foreign companies from working with it.
“If your company is accepting bitcoin, I am asking you to take steps to monitor its use and activity and to develop and enforce a system that will deter it,” Schneiderman wrote.
Some of the most prominent companies to embrace bitcoin are those that operate in the healthcare sector.
Among them are Wellpoint, a healthcare and life insurance provider, which recently announced that it would be using the digital money in its health and wellness payments system.
Other firms, such as Anthem and Wellmark, have said they plan to begin accepting bitcoin as well.
Others, including some banks, have moved to introduce restrictions on bitcoin transactions.
One of the biggest concerns is that companies can avoid having to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, which are often imposed by foreign governments or their state-owned enterprises.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is an independent body established by Congress to monitor compliance with AML rules.
Last week, it published a report that said bitcoin was “not compliant with AMLS standards”.
In December, the US Treasury Department issued a guidance document that would require banks and other financial institutions to consider bitcoin’s “cryptocurrency” status in determining whether they should treat bitcoin as a payment instrument.
It said banks must be able to demonstrate that bitcoin has not been used in the past 12 months for the purpose of evading a tax.
If they are unable to do so, the financial institution must notify the FSC.
A number of major financial firms have said that they are preparing to offer bitcoin as payment instruments in the coming months.
However, many others, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, have also declined to comment on whether they would offer bitcoin for their customers.
According to data from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in December and January, banks processed more than 2.6bn bitcoin transactions, more than double the previous month’s total of 1.4bn.
The number of US transactions from the bitcoin industry reached $4.2bn, according to FinCEN.
In May, FinCen also issued guidance on cryptocurrencies that said that it was “adopting a more robust approach to anti-Money Laundering (AM) regulations in light of the recent surge in bitcoin activity”.
It said that bitcoin could be used for money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as for illicit payments that do not have the required documentation.
Bitcoin has also attracted attention from regulators in Australia, where the government is considering regulations to make it illegal to use the digital currencies in financial transactions.
It is expected that the Australian Financial Services Authority (AFSA) will adopt a proposed rule in 2018 to limit the use of bitcoin for transactions.
“The digital currency is widely perceived to be a tool for illicit activity and terrorist funding, and we are concerned that bitcoin will become the new vehicle for such activities,” the Financial Services Council of Australia (FSCA) said in a statement.
