Miners abandon Kazakhstan, while Visa expands crypto services in South America

The public adoption of crypto assets continues, despite the tense geopolitical situation and the lack of movement in the crypto market. The number of blockchain projects is rising, and institutional investments are pushing new highs.

However, the period of bitcoin's record high hash rate is over. The government of Kazakhstan is forcing miners to abandon the country. Earlier, crypto companies moved 30% of the mining hardware out of the country. Cryptocurrency mining is now taxed in Kazakhstan, while energy supply is limited due to the ongoing energy crisis in the country.

Despite its significant contribution to bitcoin's hash rate, the move of mining operations away from Kazakhstan should not influence BTC significantly. The asset is within the wide trading range, while trading volume remains low. It indicates falling hash rate would not affect the value of the cryptocurrency.

Fed policy will be the main driver of bitcoin. On March 16, the Federal Reserve are set to hold a policy meeting. The regulator is expected to raise the interest rate – the first increase out of seven planned in 2022. As a result, BTC is expected to stay within the $32,000-$45,000 range. The Fed could also not hike the rate at the March meeting. However, in this scenario, it would likely be followed by an even greater hike in April.

Despite the war in Ukraine, crypto funds managed to attract $36 million of investments, indicating the worldwide adoption of cryptocurrencies continues. Visa has partnered with the crypto payment platform Tribal Credit to expand financing and credit options in Central and South America. The payment platform is set to issue business credit cards in Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Panama, Uruguay, and the Dominican Republic. South American countries, being the main adopter of crypto technology, could lead the way for widespread use of crypto assets.

The crypto market's situation remains difficult. Its market capitalization has failed to settle above $2 trillion once again. Although institutional investor activity has pushed up BTC, the altcoin market is not doing well. Taking BTC's limited potential into account, the crypto market is likely to retrace downwards after reaching the strong resistance level at $2 trillion.