Legality of bitcoin by country or territory

The South Korean government on Jan. 11 said it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil as the nation’s police and tax authorities raided local exchanges on alleged tax evasion.

The family of the first Bitcoin victim in Turkey, who was killed in September, have been unable to locate traces of the virtual currency, which skyrocketed this month.

As the frenzy continues over Bitcoin, Serbia's National Bank, NBS, has warned those trading with it to consider their actions and the level of risk they are willing to accept.

"Virtual currencies and Bitcoin, as one of the best known, are not legally regulated in the Republic of Serbia and cannot be considered a means of payment," NBS told BIRN.

Bitcoin could be worth literally nothing, if the cryptocurrency is not recognized as a rival of the US dollar and other fiat currencies, warns analysts of a banking giant Morgan Stanley.

"If nobody accepts the technology for payment, then the value would be 0," analyst James Faucette and his team wrote in a note to clients.

Bitcoin prices suffered a dramatic plunge on Dec. 22, dropping 20 percent at one point towards the $13,000-mark in volatile Asian trading.

The bitcoin collapsed by 17% in 24 hours, according to data released by Coinmarketcap, the agencies said.

The bitcoin sell-off continued on Wednesday after the leading platform for buying and selling the cryptocurrency, Coinbase, announced it was rolling out support for rival bitcoin cash.

European governments are pushing for bitcoin regulation as alarm grows that the world's most popular digital currency is being used by money-launderers, drug traffickers and terrorists./Fortune.com

Bulgaria owns bitcoins worth more than 3 billion euros. An amount through which the country would be able to repay a large part of its debts. However, this poses risks - because it could lead to a collapse of bitcoin, say a number of media quoted by Deutsche Welle.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek warned investors on Dec. 13 against betting on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, comparing the current Bitcoin frenzy to “tulip mania” of the 17th century.