31/01/2018

Driven by the recent developments and the interest of the general public regarding virtual currencies, the Central Bank of Republic of Kosovo, reiterates the communication to warn citizens about the risks of financial losses they may face from investing in virtual money.
Virtual money is not recognized as a legal or trading means of payment, so these types of virtual money cannot be used as a legal means of payment. However, it has been noted that there is a growing tendency to purchase virtual money for the purpose of investing, because of the potential increase in their value and future profitability from this growth. Due to the flow of too much inaccurate information, speculation has been made regarding the increase of their value. Investing in these virtual money platforms is high-risk investment because their value is unstable and there is no certainty that the value will remain so.
At present, there is no local or international official authority or institution assuming responsibility for your potential losses arising from investing in virtual money. Also, there is no basic or physical property as the supporting basis for their value.
Due to anonymous and non-transparent activity, these types of virtual money can be used for dangerous activities such as money laundering, terrorist financing as well as other illegal activities.
Within the European Union, but also in some other countries, recommendations have been made and steps are being taken to limit their anonymous use and to identify all users through their sales channels and exchange with conventional currencies. In order to identify virtual money users and to enable rules for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, the Central Bank of Kosovo and other authorities in Kosovo are considering possibility for adapting these recommendations.
As you may be informed, recently there have been some misuse on some of the virtual platforms like platform closure and cyber-theft, loss of huge investment from platforms that enable virtual money trading and its storage in so-called "digital portfolios."
Based on the above estimates, the Central Bank of Kosovo warns virtual platform users that these platforms are not regulated by law and are not supervised by regulatory authorities. Therefore, there is no institutional control that is exercised against these risks and there is no legal way of addressing losses in case of misuse of your investments by such platforms. All responsibilities for possible financial losses will be borne individually by potential users of these instruments.