Turkmenistan Goes Crypto: Exchanges, Mining Now Legal

Turkmenistan has officially legalized crypto exchanges and mining, although digital assets are still not recognized as a means of payment.

Turkmenistan’s Crypto Legislation Now In Effect

As reported by Associated Press, the Asian nation of Turkmenistan officially recognized mining and exchanging cryptocurrency as legal on Thursday. The move comes after President Serdar Berdymukhamedov signed a law back in November, which allowed crypto companies to obtain registration starting January 1st.

Located in Central Asia, Turkmenistan was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union before gaining independence following the USSR’s dissolution in 1991. Today, the country is considered as one of the world’s most isolated, due to strict state control over media, internet access, and foreign business activity.

Home to a population of over seven million, Turkmenistan’s economy is dependent on its natural gas reserves, which rank as the fifth largest in the world. China is its main customer at the moment, with a pipeline project aimed at supplying gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in the works.

For a nation known for tight state control, the move to embrace crypto marks a notable shift. Though, while the country is now open to mining firms and exchanges, it still hasn’t legalized digital assets as a form of payment, currency, or security.

Turkmenistan isn’t the only Central Asian nation to have made developments related to the digital asset sector recently. Uzbekistan, located north of Turkmenistan, signed on an initiative related to stablecoin payments in November, approving a regulatory sandbox launch for January 1st.

Elsewhere in the region, Iran has taken an even bolder approach, offering to sell advanced weapons systems to foreign governments for crypto, according to a report from Financial Times. The nation is willing to exchange ballistic missiles, drones, and warships for digital assets in a bid to bypass western financial controls, per the report.

Bitcoin Has Been Stuck In Consolidation Recently

While nations move forward with crypto regulation, the market has been stuck in a phase of consolidation lately, with the Bitcoin price unable to settle on a direction.

As the below chart shows, BTC has been ranging between $85,000 and $90,000 during the last couple of weeks.

The market slowdown has naturally not been restricted to just Bitcoin; the altcoins have also faced stale price action. Ethereum, for example, has positive returns of over 2% in the past month, which are not too different from BTC’s small decline of 2%.

Over the past day, Bitcoin has once again climbed toward the upper end of the range, with its price currently trading around $89,500. Considering the recent pattern, it’s possible that this recovery effort may also fizzle out, but it only remains to be seen how things will play out in the coming days.