In surprising comments made by the Russian director for financial policy, Russia could be softening its stance towards crypto. Ivan Chebeskov, a director within the Ministry of Finance has come out in support of regulating the cryptocurrency rather than banning it. His support is a response to the Russian central bank proposing a blanket ban on crypto mining and trading. According to Chebeskov, banning cryptocurrencies operations and mining will lead to the country lagging behind the worldwide tech industry. The minister instead suggested that cryptocurrencies should be regulated: We need to give these technologies the opportunity to develop. In this …

Considering that Bitcoin (BTC) is a blockchain network that uses a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, miners are a highly significant part of the market dynamics of the network and the community itself. On Jan. 5, it was revealed that Kazakhstan shut down its internet services due to unprecedented political unrest sparked by rising fuel prices in the country. The protests in Kazakhstan began on Jan. 2 in the town of Zhanaozen to fight against the government doubling the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is widely used as car fuel in the country. This change in pricing came as …

Bitcoin (BTC) hash rate has returned to all-time highs despite losing a key hash rate contributor. Meanwhile, amid lackluster price action, Block CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed the creation of an open Bitcoin mining system. The BTC space continues to surprise and bewilder critics and fanatics alike. Kazakhstan, the network's second most important BTC mining country, experienced an internet blackout last week due to civil unrest. However, the hash rate faltered no more than 13.4% before regathering to reach all-time highs. As shown in the below data from Glassnode, with the price checking into the $42,000 range yesterday, the mean hash …

Bitcoin Magazine’s YouTube channel was restored around three hours after being shut down, with the publication attributing the short ban to the YouTube algorithm flagging the word “Kazakhstan.” In a Jan. 12 Twitter post, Bitcoin Magazine noted that its YouTube account with 56,600 followers was banned in the middle of a livestream with no prior warning from the platform. "Our @YouTube with 60,000 followers just got BANNED mid-livestream with no warning. DELETED. When will the aggression against #Bitcoin content end?" The livestream was focused on topics relating to Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Bitcoin (BTC) mining and the recent internet blackout …

Ether (ETH) has been an emotional rollercoaster over the past three months primarily because its price rallied twice. First it peaked at $4,870 on Nov. 10 and at $4,780 on Dec. 1. However, the double top was quickly followed by a harsh rejection which led to $490 million in long futures contract liquidations in 48 hours. Once again, hope was instilled on Dec. 8 after Ether commenced to rally 28.5% in 4 days to retest the $4,400 support. Soon after, the downtrend continued, leading to the $2,900 bottom on Jan. 10, which was the lowest ETH price seen in 102 …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is putting more effort into increasing compliance in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia and Ukraine. Binance is planning to extend its operations in the region and boost local cryptocurrency compliance and education, Gleb Kostarev, Binance’s head of operations for Russia and the CIS, told Cointelegraph on Tuesday. The company additionally expects to focus on the local Binance Smart Chain (BSC) development and community, he noted. As part of the effort, Binance announced several local hires, including Olga Goncharova, Binance’s new director of government relations in Russia and the CIS. Goncharova previously served …

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly reached its lowest level in five months this Monday at $39,650, marking a 42.6% drawdown from the all-time high present on Nov 22, 2022. Some argue that a “crypto winter” has already begun citing the $2.1 billion leverage-long aggregate crypto futures contracts that were liquidated over the past seven days. The descending channel guiding Bitcoin’s negative performance for the past 63 days indicates that traders should expect sub-$40,000 prices by February. Confidence from investors continued to decline after the United States Federal Reserve’s December FOMC session on Jan. 5. The monetary policy authority showed commitment to decrease …

Deputy for the Spanish Ciudadanos political party María Muñoz has proposed a bill to make Spain a Bitcoin mining hotspot following the internet shutdown that caused a mining outage in Kazakhstan. The lawyer and economist Muñoz was steadfast in her support of Spain as a Bitcoin (BTC) destination, in a tweet on Friday: “The protests in Kazakhstan have repercussions all around the world but also for Bitcoin. We propose that Spain positions itself as a safe destination for investments in cryptocurrencies to develop a flexible, efficient and safe sector.” A two-page open letter accompanied the tweet directed at the Spanish …

Despite major internet blackouts amid anti-government protests in Kazakhstan, some Bitcoin (BTC) miners operating in the country are not planning to leave the country just yet. BIT Mining, one of the largest BTC mining companies that relocated operations from China to Kazakhstan last year, is still evaluating the impact of political unrest in Kazakhstan, Chinese industry news agency 8btc reported Friday. “It is unlikely that our mining machines will be evacuated to North America,” a spokesperson for BIT Mining reportedly said, adding that the firm will be closely monitoring the situation. The representative also noted that Kazakhstan is not BIT …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) cratered below $43,000 on Thursday in a selloff that was stoked by the Federal Reserve’s renewed pledge to start unwinding its pandemic stimulus support. For the so-called diamond hand investors among us, the decline presents an attractive entry point to continue accumulating BTC at discount rates. 2021 was the year that institutions and corporations became major movers and shakers in the Bitcoin market. By the end of the year, corporations and investment funds held roughly 1.48 million BTC, which represents 7% of the current circulating supply. Do you think these large, strategic investors are going …

On Wednesday, Kazakhstan, the second-largest country in the world when it comes to Bitcoin (BTC) mining hash rate, experienced unprecedented political unrest due to a sharp rise in fuel prices. As a result, the country's presiding cabinet resigned, but not before the state-owned Kazakhtelecom shut down the nation's internet, causing network activity to plunge to 2% of daily heights. The move dealt a severe blow to Bitcoin mining activity in the country. As per data compiled by YCharts.com, the Bitcoin network's overall hash rate declined 13.4% in the hours after the shutdown from about 205,000 petahash per second (PH/s) to …

Kazakhstan, which boasts the second-largest (BTC) mining hash rate in the world, is experiencing major internet disruptions amid local anti-government protests. Network data provider NetBlocks reported Wednesday that Kazakhstan was “in the midst of a nation-scale internet blackout after a day of mobile internet disruptions and partial restrictions.” According to the data, the normalized network connectivity in Kazakhstan fell to 2% on Jan. 5. “The incident is likely to severely limit coverage of escalating anti-government protests,” NetBlocks noted. Kazakhtelecom, the largest telecom company in Kazakhstan, has shut down the internet across the nation, according to some reports. Cellular networks have …