Bitcoin network power slumps as Kazakhstan crackdown hits crypto miners
Bitcoin network’s global computing power dropped sharply as the internet was shut down across Kazakhstan on January 5 during its deadly uprising, preventing the country’s bitcoin miners from accessing the bitcoin network. Last year Kazakhstan became the world’s second-largest center for bitcoin mining after the United States, after China clamped down on crypto mining activity. This, plus the January 5 release of minutes from the US Fed’s December meeting in which the central bank indicated it would dial back its supportive monetary policy, has led to a sharp drop in crypto-asset prices. [Read more]
According to Chainalysis, cryptocurrency-based crime hit a new all-time high in 2021, with illicit addresses receiving $14 billion over the course of the year, up from $7.8 billion in 2020. However, with the growth of legitimate cryptocurrency usage far outpacing the growth of criminal usage, transactions involving illicit addresses represented just 0.15% of cryptocurrency transaction volume in 2021, versus 0.62% in 2020. The yearly trends suggest that with the exception of 2019 — an extreme outlier year for cryptocurrency-based crime largely due to the PlusToken Ponzi scheme — crime is becoming a smaller and smaller part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. [Read more]
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