At the end of May, the Parliament of Paraguay approved a bill to legalize the cryptocurrency market and mining. This document was submitted to the President of the country, Mario Abdo Benitez.
However, the head of state rejected it because mining can create risks for the energy infrastructure.
The bill states that cryptocurrency mining should be recognized as one of the types of industry. Accordingly, individuals and legal entities involved in mining must pay for electricity at special rates.
The President of Paraguay rejected all points of the bill, including those devoted to the exchange and storage of digital currencies.
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Benítez's press service said in a statement that the vast majority of miners work in the shadows and do not notify power engineers of the amount of electricity consumed. The legalization of the industry will not force them out of the gray zone.
At the same time, the president acknowledged that crypto mining has become a separate type of business that creates jobs in the Paraguayan province.
Since last year, there have been calls in the Parliament of Paraguay to legalize bitcoin. The deputies believe that the country should follow the path of El Salvador, which recognized BTC as a means of payment.