Today in Crypto: Illinois, Georgia Lawmakers Eye Tax Breaks for Bitcoin Miners; Economic Impact of Crypto Wealth is Hard to Measure

Georgia and Illinois have been looking at tax incentives for cryptocurrency mining, CoinDesk reported Friday (Feb.18).

A bill Thursday House reps in George proposed tax exemptions for the sale or use of electricity in crypto mining.

An Illinois Senate bill from January would extend an existing tax incentive for data centers of crypto mining.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that it’s unknown how much crypto investors are pouring into the global economy.

There has been vast wealth made from cryptocurrencies, a $2 trillion market, though it still pales in comparison to other asset classes. The global value of crypto has grown by almost $1.5 trillion last year.

While crypto wealth is harder to spend, the report says it’s “time to start contemplating” how the wealth will come through to the rest of the economy.

In other crypto news, Frax Finance will put out its new stablecoin, the Frax Price Index, to holders and stakers of its various tokens, CoinDesk reported Friday — but they have to own one already.

According to Frax, the FPI is an “inflation resistant” algorithmic stablecoin, which will fluctuate in value in line with the Consumer Price Index.

The FPI is going to be denominated in dollars, Frax Finance founder Sam Kazemian said.

For example, if inflation is held at 7%, the tokens will be worth $1.07 by the end of the year.

In other news, U.S. law enforcement agencies took around $30 million in crypto related to the NetWalker ransomware from January 2021, CoinDesk reported Friday.

Chainalysis, which provided the numbers, said it was the largest seizure related to ransomware.

Law enforcement took just under 720 bitcoins and 15.7 monero, which came out to over $29.4 million at today’s prices.