The advocacy organization advised different bodies and government departments to take their role in making sure digital currencies become an accepted and regulated investment option in a statement issued one year after the CBN order went into force. The declaration also emphasizes the advantages of cryptocurrency regulation.

Related post: No change in stance on virtual currencies, according to Kenya's central bank governor

"Today, we argue for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to have fair access to banking and monetary facilities without unequal treatment, in conformance with the Country’s Constitution, relevant laws, and especially Nation’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) rules." This method will help our law enforcement authorities, particularly the Nigeria Police Force and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), among other things," SIBAN stated.

Still, the stakeholder group urged that the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other relevant agencies, be engaged in any efforts to legislate virtual currencies as "their legal duty under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria," which may displease the CBN.

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Marat Sultangaziyev suggested a pricing hike for crypto miners

The Kazakh government is exploring a three-part bill to allow crypto miners to pay significantly more to operate in the nation, potentially making Kazakhstan less appealing to the sector.

On February 4, Kazakhstan's First Vice Minister of Finance, Marat Sultangaziyev, suggested a pricing hike for crypto miners from $0.0023 per Kwh to $0.01 (a 335 percent rise). He also recommended a charge on every graphics card (GPU) and unit of crypto mining machinery. He compared the tax-per-video card to how casinos are charged for every table they operate, regardless of whether the table is operating or not.

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The third prong of his plan was to eliminate the value-added tax (VAT) exemption for mining equipment.

To accomplish the mathematical calculations necessary to generate new blocks on the network, mining Bitcoin requires specialized hardware. Up to 10,000 mining rigs, comprising ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), GPUs, racks, cooling units, and other equipment, are housed in bigger mining activities.

Related post: Kazakhstan broadens cryptocurrency miners' electricity restrictions

Kazakhstan is now one of the top attractions for crypto miners after China's mining prohibition last summer until political instability forced the authorities to limit internet connectivity last month. Due to a temporary outage in Kazakhstan on Jan. 5, the Bitcoin network's hash rate dropped by 13.4% in a day, from around 205 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 177 EH/s.