But not necessarily, some countries don't consider bitcoin as "legal" (or illegal). Yet, merchants are accepting it as a payment methods. In my opinion, the only benefit I can see from making bitcoin legal is earning peoples trust because people have this idea that bitcoin is used for bad things only (darknet) or that they will lose their money (mt.gox) etc. but after legalization, they'll know they are protected.

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Germany for example don't allow setting up ATMs, so this news (If true) could be a step towards allowing them. Either way, you can technically continue to use bitcoin regardless of the laws because of its P2P/decentralized nature.