New York Senate Passes Bitcoin, Ethereum Mining Ban Bill

Key Insights:

• New York State Senate approved the crypto mining moratorium bill today.
• Proof of Work mining has been at many governments’ targets, including the European Union.
• BTC and ETH, on the other hand, continue to move sideways in a consolidated market.

After dying in assembly for more than seven months, the bill finally returned to the senate in January 2022. After amendments and recommitment towards environmental conservation, the bill was approved yesterday.

Bitcoin, Ethereum Under Target

The bill, which establishes a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations that use the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus method, is said to have a significant impact primarily on the two biggest cryptocurrencies that run on PoW.

Although Ethereum is soon going to transform into Proof of Stake, the implications of the law will come in before ‘The Merge’.

But as per the bill, mining operations will not be severely impacted. The bill would prohibit the development of any new carbon-based fuel-powered PoW mining projects for a period of two years.

However, the ones that currently exist or are renewing their licenses actively will bear no impact from the bill.

Furthermore, as per Senator Kevin Parker, only one mining facility is currently operational, and it won’t be affected by the bill.

The concern surrounding the environmental impact of PoW has been time and again raised by various government agencies.

In the past, the European Union, too, was on the verge of placing an absolute ban on PoW-based mining methods, which eventually failed to take form.

However, within the United States, states like Georgia are executing opposite strategies as the state has embraced crypto mining in all its forms.

As reported by FXEmpire, Georgia is a tax haven for crypto miners, as it levies no tax on the individual miner and only a 15% IT and 18% VAT tax on corporate miners.

The Kings of the Crypto Market on the Charts

Amidst the regulation chaos, the crypto market witnessed its worst month to date. Both the major cryptocurrencies took a hit, with Bitcoin falling by 27.13% during the May 9 crash and Ethereum losing 33.58% in the same period.

At the moment, since the market has stuck to moving sideways, both the coins are struggling to recover. In fact, Ethereum further slipped and fell to trade at $1,762 at the time of writing.

As the fear in the crypto market persists, it will be a while before the market can completely recover from the crash. If it falls further, it will be a confirmation that investors are in a bear market.