New York may offer virtual currency regulations this year
Credit: Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski
Mock Bitcoins are displayed on a table in an illustration picture taken in Berlin January 7, 2014.
The regulations would be aimed at preventing misconduct such as money laundering without derailing a fledgling technology, said Lawsky, the state's superintendent of Financial Services.
Lawsky was speaking at the start of two days of hearings on online currencies organized by his agency, the New York Department of Financial Services.
The digital currency bitcoin, while gaining wider acceptance by businesses such as the Sacramento Kings basketball team and ecommerce site Overstock.com, has been coming under increased scrutiny by regulators. The bitcoin is not backed by a government or central bank; its value fluctuates according to user demand.
The hearings in New York came the day after U.S. prosecutors charged a bitcoin executive, Charlie Shrem, with conspiring to commit money laundering.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Emily Flitter; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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