No. Of course it can be regulated. Indeed it could be flat out made illegal. Just because you can't physically stop people from doing stuff doesn't mean a law c

No. Of course it can be regulated. Indeed it could be flat out made illegal. Just because you can't physically stop people from doing stuff doesn't mean a law can't (or shouldn't) be enacted. Having a "no murder" law in no ways stops people from comitting murder. As pointed out in the comment below you can certainly make it difficult to participate in the market - e.g making it illegal for companies to provide clearing into fiat currency. E.g in the UK right now altho there isn't currently a law no UK banks will provide deposit or clearing facilities for exchanges or market places for fear of reputational damage, e.g being at risk of accusuations of faciliating crime or terrorism financing. (Barclays have recently ended banking facilities with several hundred regular currency exchanges for exactly this reason - including a Somalian remittance service which has been in the news a bit [1]) 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24553148 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24553148