IMF and crypto mining in Georgia

The Republic of Georgia is one of the largest cryptocurrency producers in the world. Currently, it is among the top five crypto mining producers. Moreover, Bitfury, which is one of the biggest Bitcoin mining companies in the world, is located in Georgia. Georgia became one of the leaders thanks to cheap electricity generated by hydropower plants.

The local crypto market is actively developing, and this emerging technology is becoming more popular in the country.

However, there is one serious issue that has a negative impact on the economy. Georgia’s income from cryptocurrency-related activities such as mining and trading is not reflected in the trade balance reports.

According to the information, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made a recommendation regarding this issue. IMF suggested that Georgia should address this problem by including the income from the cryptocurrency-related activities. As a result, the income generated by the crypto industry will become part of their trade balance reports.

Crypto mining and Export

The IMF’s position regarding cryptocurrency-related activities is that Georgia should become more transparent when accounting for crypto mining. The country which is one of the market leader’s in terms of crypto mining should pay more attention to this issue.

Currently, Georgia’s income from cryptocurrency production remains unknown. The representatives from the IMF already met with large crypto mining companies to discuss this issue with them. They explained to companies that as locally mined cryptocurrencies are sold to foreign companies, this can be considered as a form of export. Thus, to tackle the problems connected with the transparency they should include this information.

It is worth mentioning that the IMF is working with Georgia on improving statistics and methodologies for calculating the trade balance. Sides also discussed the introduction of accounting when it comes to crypto mining.

Based on the information provided by the National Bank of Georgia, the total number of digital wallets registered in the country reached 5,300 in 2018.