- Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) has agreed to unfreeze Luno’s account while they investigate tax matters.
- However, withdrawals may still be stalled as Luno continues talks with Maybank.
- Once accounts are unfrozen, Luno will inform everyone via app, email, and social media.
When the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB), or Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri froze withdrawals and deposits from Luno’s wallets, people were worried. Luno is one of the most popular exchanges in Malaysia. This led to a series of panicked transfers into other exchanges—losing money along the way.
Didn’t help that the prices for Bitcoin and Ethereum suffered a massive crash this weekend.
After some intensive talks, Luno has two updates to share with us.
IRB has agreed to unfreeze Luno’s account while the tax authorities complete investigations.
The good news is that Luno is now allowed to operate within Malaysia.
Luno was recently barred from withdrawals and deposits as IRB conducts investigations related to tax matters. As part of their investigation, IRB requested that they provide information regarding all their customers; this is a request that Luno tries to limit in their discussions with IRB.
Bitcoin appreciations aren’t taxed yet, but it does seem to be heading in that direction. Even Luno recommends that its users declare any gains made from trading in cryptocurrency.
For now, it is unclear how much of users’ information has or will be revealed to IRB.
Luno is still working with Maybank to have the account operational again.
The Maybank issue affects not only Maybank customers, but also others like CIMB, Hong Leong, Bank Rakyat, and other Malaysian banks as all of their customer deposits are held within Maybank.
Talks with the big echelons of Maybank have been going on for a month now, though financial authorities are confident that this issue can be resolved.
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That’s at least one problem down for Luno users in Malaysia, though the exchange promises to update their fans through app, email and social media once their accounts are fully operational again. These issues with withdrawals and deposits have been ongoing for approximately 2 months now.
Bitcoin is still a tough nut for the government to crack, as they figure out exactly the level of regulation that suits our local ecosystem, or even to streamline a whole new process.
Today’s players may feel the burn now, but this would hopefully lead to a more conducive cryptocurrency landscape in the future that is actually helped by regulation, not hindered.
Feature Image Credit: Tech Financials