Amid Bitcoin's (BTC) drop to six-month lows below $30,000 on Tuesday, a Norwegian financial regulator warned investors that the cryptocurrency industry is largely unregulated in the country. The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, or Finanstilsynet, published June 22 a statement on consumer protection of crypto investors, emphasizing that the authority currently does not supervise local crypto companies in terms of anything but money laundering: “These platforms must notify Finanstilsynet in accordance with the money laundering regulations, but apart from money laundering supervision, Finanstilsynet does not supervise these actors.” Finanstilsynet further pointed out major crypto trading-associated risks like extreme price volatility …

Crypto mining firm HIVE Blockchain Technologies sold one of its data centers in the Norwegian municipality of Narvik, which it previously held since 2018. In an announcement on Monday, HIVE said it had transferred all shares of the firm’s local subsidiary Kolos Norway AS to Narvik, in addition to a $200,000 payment. The move came after the Norwegian Parliament approved a bill in December 2018 that would not provide relief to crypto miners on power consumption. The mining firm said it was “no longer probable that [HIVE] will be able to meet the development conditions” given the legislation, which has …

The Norwegian central bank, Norges Bank, is set to test various technical solutions for a central bank digital currency following years of research. Norges Bank officially announced Friday that it will be conducting CBDC tests over the next two years upon recommendations from an internal working group. “The working group is of the opinion that the motivation for research into CBDCs has been strengthened. Many central banks are in the process of carrying out similar research, and several are already under way with technical testing,” the central bank stated. According to the announcement, Norges Bank has been involved in CBDC …

The Norwegian Tax Administration has issued a warning to crypto traders in advance of Norway's April 30 deadline to file tax returns. According to a notice from the Norwegian Tax Administration on Wednesday, the government agency advises all taxpayers who owned or sold crypto in 2020 to enter it on their returns or "risk paying additional tax." The NTA said roughly 2% of cryptocurrency holders declared what tokens they owned or earned in 2019, less than 4,700 people out of an estimated 235,000. "We think a lot of the gap is due to the fact that some crypto owners mistakenly …

Within the same month, Norwegian billionaire investor Øystein Stray Spetalen has gone from dismissing Bitcoin (BTC) as a "nonsense currency" to revealing that he has joined the board of Norway's top domestic crypto exchange MiraiEx. Spetalen's former position was that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin should be "immediately" banned by the Norwegian and European authorities due to the destructive effect that mining them has on the environment. In a pre-recorded interview screened at the DNB Invest conference on March 18, he said: “Bitcoin today consumes as much energy as all of Norway. It is extremely environmentally hostile. The authorities and the …

Aker ASA, a $6-billion Oslo Bors-listed holding company, is set to begin investing in Bitcoin. According to a press release issued on Monday, Aker has created a new company called Seetee AS whose mission is to invest in Bitcoin (BTC). The newly formed Seetee will also delve into the Bitcoin mining arena while looking to forge useful partnerships with major players in the crypto space. Indeed, Seetee has reportedly entered into a collaborative agreement with Blockstream. According to Blockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow, the Bitcoin infrastructure firm will work closely with Seetee on its BTC mining and sidechain implementation …

Speaking at an event on Thursday, Ida Wolden Bache, deputy governor at Norway's central bank, described a decline in cash payments while elaborating on Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDCs. "Only 4% of payments are now made using cash," Bache said in her speech during Finance Norway's Payments conference. "This share is approximately the same as in spring, and considerably lower than before the pandemic," she added. "To our knowledge, the share of cash payments is lower in Norway than in any other country." Norway uses the kroner, the currency issued by Norges Bank, the country's central bank. After COVID-19 …

Crypto mining firm Bitfury has formed a partnership with a private equity firm allowing it to upgrade its existing $35 million blockchain infrastructure in Norway. According to a Nov. 2 announcement from the Luxembourg-based LIAN Group, the firm has launched crypto mining as a service, or MaaS, by partnering with Bitfury. As part of the arrangement, the LIAN Group will contribute to a full upgrade of Bitfury’s existing blockchain infrastructure, consisting of a large data center in Norway. Bitfury opened crypto mining operations near the town of Mo i Rana in 2018. The 42-megawatt data center is reportedly already powered …

Craig Wright, a self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) creator, is apparently not required to pay legal fees for a failed libel suit against the Twitter crypto enthusiast known as Hodlonaut. In an Aug. 14 email to Cointelegraph, Wright’s legal representative argued that he is not obliged to pay legal costs in the defamation suit until the Norwegian Supreme Court considers an appeal. The spokesperson said, “Craig has appealed to the Norwegian Supreme Court. Craig’s Norwegian lawyers say that there is no obligation on Craig to pay the costs until that appeal is dealt with.” The new comments come in response to Hodlonaut …

The Norwegian-based producer of farmed-salmon, Kvarøy Arctic, has become the latest firm to join IBM’s Food Trust — the tech giant’s blockchain-based supply chain solution for the food industry. Kvarøy Arctic is a supplier for numerous restaurants and Whole Foods retailers in the United States and Canada, and will now utilize blockchain technology to provide detailed information on the origin of its produce to restaurants and consumers. Raj Rao, IBM Food Trust’s general manager, described the partnership as “promoting transparency and sustainability in the seafood supply chains.” Blockchain boosts transparency Information regarding the origin of salmon farmed by Kvarøy Arctic …

Europeans are getting more confident about the future of the cryptocurrency industry amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report. People in Europe are becoming more optimistic about the Blockchain space. In 2020, more Europeans believe that crypto will exist in 10 years than ever before, bitFLyer exchange reported on April 29. Amount of crypto believers in Europe edges up 3% in 2020 According to a new survey by bitFLyer, the number of Europeans who believe that crypto will still exist in 10 years has edged up from 63% in 2019 to 66% in 2020. The survey is part …

When Norwegian millionaire Tom Hagen reported that his wife had been kidnapped in October 2018, included was a ransom note demanding $10 million worth of the cryptocurrency Monero. Now, after Hagen’s arrest by local authorities on April 28 on suspicion for the murder of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, it seems as if the ransom demand could have simply been a way to cover up the crime. The case has gripped the nation and Reuters reported on April 29 that Police Lawyer Aase Kjustad Eriksson told a news conference that, after an 18 month investigation, the police have now had “reason to suspect …