In a package of financial services reforms unveiled today, setting out how to replace European Union banking and financial-market laws, the Treasury said it would extend an existing tax break, which allows investors to use a U.K.-based manager without drawing extra tax liability, to the crypto sector. The change will be made via regulations this year.

The crypto market slump doesn’t mean interest in crypto is also down. A new study from the cryptocurrency education platform CryptoManiaks revealed that many countries are still scouring the internet, hungry for crypto-related information.

According to the study, the Netherlands and Turkey take the top two spots, with 8.2% and 5.5% of the population, respectively, searching for crypto-related terms. Turkey particularly accounted for 4.7 million searches, leading the searches with sheer numbers.

The study analyzed the combined number of searches for a select set of popular cryptocurrencies into a percentage of the population for each country in order to calculate the percentage of locals searching each month.

While it was in second for overall searches, Turkey came in first place for searches related to the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), with 812,000 monthly searches. This is nearly double that of Ethereum (ETH), the country’s third most searched crypto.

A spokesperson from CryptoManiaks commented on the DOGE curiosity, particularly over the last 12 month:

“Dogecoin’s popularity has surpassed that of Ethereum in a significant number of countries, with nearly 2 million more monthly searches worldwide for the coin.”

The cryptocurrency DOGE has remained a popular digital asset and crypto cultural phenomenon after it was adopted as the poster crypto for internet icon Elon Musk.

Some of the cryptocurrencies included in the search terms were Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), and Binance Coin (BNB), among others. 

Following the Netherlands and Turkey in the ranks were Germany, Canda and the Czech Republic.

Related: DeFi sparks new investments despite turbulent market: Finance Redefined

While the United States and the United Kingdom are major players in the global cryptocurrency industry, neither ranked in the top spots due to the number of searches equivalent to their population sizes. The U.S. ranked 15th with 1.9% of the population searching for these terms, while the U.K. takes the 12th spot with 2.6%.

Recent research from Cointelegraph also revealed that despite market conditions, major institutions still remain interested in the industry and continue to pour millions into crypto-related projects.

The cryptocurrency and mining law that the Paraguayan Congress passed in June was finally shelved on Dec. 5. The document, which sought to bring order to crypto mining and exchange activities in Paraguay, was ultimately dropped after failing to obtain the votes needed to reject the presidential veto it received.

Paraguayan Crypto Law Dropped After Support Wanes

The Paraguayan cryptocurrency law that was introduced in Congress in 2021 was finally shelved after not receiving the support it needed in the Deputy Chamber. The project, which was vetoed in September by President Mario Abdo, failed to gather the votes needed in order to reject this veto.

The veto had previously been rejected by the Paraguayan senate, which aimed to approve and pass the law without presidential support. The veto had the support of the Commission for Industry, Commerce, Tourism, and Cooperatives; while the Economic and Financial Affairs, and the Fight against Drug Trafficking, Related and Serious Illicit Activities commissions rejected the motion.

Some deputies questioned the veto, stating that the cryptocurrency issue must be studied and regulated due to its importance. In this vein, deputy Sebastian Garcia criticized this outcome, stating that with this move, the cryptocurrency subject will remain in an “absolute informality.”

Reasons for Supporting the Veto Motion

One of the biggest reasons wielded by President Mario Abdo and other deputies to exert a complete veto on this bill has to do with the determinations it makes about the power delivered to cryptocurrency miners. Abdo stated that cryptocurrency mining was an activity featuring “high consumption of electrical energy, but little use of labor.”

Also, the law established limits for the fees that crypto miners pay for the power delivered to their operations. This would clash with the method of determining power tariffs by the National Power Administration (ANDE), an organization that also supported the veto measure after having found several cryptocurrency farms that were connected illegally to the power network.

Deputy Arnaldo Samaniego argued that rejecting the veto motion would put ANDE in a tight spot, facing potential losses of up to $30 million. Deputy Jose Rodriguez also supported this position, explaining that the organization could not operate with losses derived from this law.

This development puts the cryptocurrency regulation efforts in Paraguay back at square one, with legislators having to once more propose and discuss a hypothetical new cryptocurrency law.

What do you think about the final destiny of the cryptocurrency and mining law in Paraguay? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

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