Georgia, the nation on the Black Sea, is reportedly working towards introducing regulations for its crypto market. 

Specifically, National Bank of Georgia Governor Koba Gvenetadze reportedly shared that the central bank has completed the establishment of a draft for the regulatory legislation, following the requirements of global entities. 

Gvenetadze further claimed that it is still not certain the precise size of the Georgian crypto market, because of the insufficiency in regulation. 

Nonetheless, Moneyval – the Council of Europe money laundering monitoring agency – reportedly carried out an estimation and concluded that its month-to-month transaction volume falls between the range of 3.5 million and 5 million Georgian lari, equivalent to $1.09 million to $1.64 million, as of September 2020. 

Moneyval reportedly called for the authority of Georgia to “strengthen the practical application of their measures to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism” at that time. 

The upcoming legislation will reportedly stay in compliance with requirements put in place by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and was drafted with the help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff.

At the moment, financial institutions in Georgia receive no legal power to offer virtual asset exchange and transfer services, and customers taking part in activities with virtual assets are viewed as high-risk and are “subject to appropriate enhanced preventive measures.”

Georgia has reportedly been operating a crypto mining sector, taking up nearly 1% of the total Bitcoin (BTC) hash rate – an exceptional figure for a nation with a population of less than 4 million.

It reportedly possessed hydropower, although power shortages in the remote Svaneti region over the winter were attributed to illegal private crypto mining activities.