Malaysia’s Shariah Advisory Council, which functions under Securities Commission, in a notable announcement, has approved digital assets trading.
The Malaysian Shariah Advisory Council is the government body which supervises the enforcement of Islamic laws in the functioning of financial institutions that follow the tenets of Islam.
While participating in Invest Malaysia 2020 on July 7, conducted via video conference, Datuk Syed Zaid Albar, Chairman of Securities Commission, said
“The SC Shariah Advisory Council has resolved that in principle, it is permissible to invest and trade in digital currencies and tokens on registered digital asset exchanges.”
Malaysia’s first regulated (approved by the country’s securities watchdog) cryptocurrency exchange SINEGY’s founder Kelvyn Chuah opined that the decision is of huge importance as over 60% of the country’s population following Islam.
Chuah said “At the same time, Malaysia is aiming to be the hub of Islamic Finance and fintech. This announcement does clear the many ambiguities still tied to digital assets.”
He further detailed the position of the Shariah Advisory Council with regard to cryptocurrencies as follows:
“Currently all regulated digital asset trading is permissible while there are several non-compliant activities that will remain disallowed.”
Chuah opined that firms such as SINEGY can look at the feasibility of offering Shariah compliant services that will lure more Muslims into crypto domain. For quite some time, the Malaysian Muslim community is looking for Shariah compliant crypto trading facilities.
Chuah further stated that “The industry is closely waiting for SC’s full guidelines on digital asset token issuance. We also think that the regulators may be looking at having a regulated digital asset derivatives market in the mid-term future.”
