BTC Year In Review 2021: The Third Quarter

China, PayPal and again China: the third quarter of this year was under the sign of the dragon. Not only had China banned BTC mining, but also issued a complete ban on cryptocurrencies.

Chinese ban

That was a bang: after China had killed the local mining industry from one day to the next in June of this year, a so-called crypto transaction ban followed on September 24th.

That means: All private crypto transactions have been banned since the end of September. To make matters worse, there is a ban on foreign exchanges to do business in China. The ban was not issued by the Chinese government, but by the country’s central bank PBOC.

The provision of services by overseas virtual currency exchanges to residents of China via the Internet is also an illegal financial activity,

it said in the PBOS statement.

But the ban was apparently a smoke candle to distract from existing problems in the country. Rumors of a possible insolvency of the real estate company Evergrande had massively unsettled both the country and the global financial markets. A scapegoat was quickly found: disrupt cryptocurrencies “the economic and financial order“Wrote the Chinese central bank.

Only the mining ban in China should have an even more impressive effect. Because since June of this year, proof-of-work-supported mining for crypto currencies is no longer allowed. The short-term drop in the hashrate in the network was so enormous that many market observers were afraid of possible attacks on the network.

The decline was only temporary. Sven Wagenknecht explains in his comment why the Chinese mining ban can even be positive for BTC’s decentralization in the long term.

Mining is shifting from east to west

A look at the current hashrate shows that the Chinese mining ban in the summer of this year did not result in a lasting collapse in network security – because it is at an all-time high of 197 EH / S. One region in particular benefited from this: North America. Both Canadian and American mining companies had massively upgraded this year. Some companies even made their debut on the stock exchange.

The Canadian company HIVE Blockchain Ltd. for example, had acquired mining rigs for $ 66 million in July of this year and increased its hashrate by 46 percent.

British PayPal integrates BTC

2020 lifted PayPal with its integration in the USA of BTC and Co. from the Covid crash, which cost BTC 35 percent of its value within one day. With the United Kingdom, a second English-speaking country has been on board since July this year. It is still unclear when integration will also follow in this country.

Salvadorans: inside take to the streets against BTC law

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele may be popular, but not everything he touches turns to gold. The BTC law, for example, had to get off to a somewhat bumpy start: Fraud of the promised 30 US dollars in BTC, which every Chivo newcomer was entitled to, was the order of the day. This and the high volatility of the crypto currency caused many people in the country to take to the streets against the law in August. A Chivo ATM was also set on fire.

If you want to know what happens next, drop by us tomorrow – then part 4 follows!