THE issuance last week of an advisory by the Reserve Bank of Fiji reminding Fijians that investing in cryptocurrency or any of its emerging virtual assets cousins from money held in Fiji is illegal took the overseas cryptocurrency media by storm. One only had to Google: “Fiji cryptocurrency RBF warning” to see that this was a serious business for the global crypto world, although in Fiji, it scarcely made the headlines.
More serious to them because the possibility of Fiji adopting Bitcoin, the world’s most famous cryptocurrency, was allegedly something that Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka had explored before coming into power.
Indeed the grip that these new-age digital currencies have on Pacific leaders is well documented and, in prospecting a little bit in this space, PM Rabuka may actually be a bit of a latecomer to the Pacific crypto party.
In recent times, the Pacific has been a playground of a variety of crypto-related ventures – from the controversial Satoshi Island project in Vanuatu, which had its Government legalizing cryptocurrency, to Palau’s Binance-related digital residency project to Tuvalu’s national digital ledger project with Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, not to mention Marshall Island’s SOV project, an ambitious undertaking that aims to make it the world’s first country to issue its own “real cryptocurrency” called SOV as legal tender.
Variations of crypto-themed ventures are either unfolding or have flopped across the Pacific, including in Fiji, where in 2021, Nananu-i-cake, a private island off the coast of Rakiraki, was at the heart of a failed crypto venture that aimed to turn it into a kind of “Cryptoland” with crypto investment linked to a piece of real estate on the island. This as Fijians unwittingly trudged through the daily post-Covid grind.
But while thankfully Fiji on a national level has been more cautious in keeping itself within the traditional course of tried and true economics, there is no mistaking the fact that cryptocurrency versus fiat is a war (and this war is live right now) that is increasingly breaching the domain of monetary sovereignty.
And this is mainly due to the very basic building block of cryptocurrency, a technology called Blockchain, which, as one techie puts it: “is a secure, immutable, decentralised digital record of transactions where there is no central authority.”
In its advisory, RBF stated: “The Governor of the RBF, Mr Ariff Ali acknowledges that there are indications of persons or entities promoting cryptocurrency investment schemes in Fiji. These investment schemes are increasingly being promoted through various platforms including social media.
Mr Ali emphasised that the RBF has not licenced nor authorised any person or entity to offer cryptocurrency investments or trade in virtual assets in Fiji. Therefore, the public is strongly advised to refrain from participating in cryptocurrency investment or trading schemes currently being promoted in Fiji.”
RBF is not alone. Similar warnings are being issued by central banks all over the world, attesting to the seriousness with which cryptocurrency is being viewed as a threat to the relevance and survival of the global financial system as we know it.
The very advancement of cryptocurrency is in itself an encroachment upon the central bank’s role as executor of a nation’s monetary sovereignty.
To let it in without regulating it is to invite economic collapse to the doorstep of the nation.
