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British Columbia Maintains Bitcoin Mining Ban Despite Vancouver’s ‘BTC-Friendly City’ Motion

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While Vancouver’s City Council has passed a motion to explore becoming a ‘bitcoin-friendly city’, British Columbia still has a province-wide ban on mining BTC until December 2025.

B.C.’s bitcoin mining ban began in December 2022 to address energy concerns, and it faced a legal challenge from Conifex Timber, which the B.C. Supreme Court upheld in early 2024, citing the policy’s reasonableness and alignment with public utility regulations.

BC Hydro, the largest electricity utility in the province, relies heavily on hydroelectric power, which generates over 90% of its electricity.

Vancouver’s motion – introduced to the council by Mayor Ken Sim – focuses on bitcoin’s financial benefits and mentions the benefits of bitcoin mining, but it can’t influence mining because of electricity regulation and BC Hydro’s operations fall under provincial jurisdiction.

«The Province still has a ban on cryptocurrency mining and is continuing its work towards a permanent cryptocurrency mining policy,» a spokesperson for BC Hydro said.

Earlier this year, B.C.’s legislature passed an updated version of the Energy Statutes Amendment Act, which was first drafted following B.C. Hydro’s temporary suspension of bitcoin mining connections to the provincial grid.

The updated Act specifically enables the provincial government to bypass the BC Utilities Commission, the Provincial electricity regulator, giving it direct authority to regulate electricity service specifically for crypto.

Conifex Timber, which had bitcoin mining farms in the province scheduled for connection to the grid, argued in court that these conditions were «unduly discriminatory and unreasonable,» but ultimately, a Provincial judge disagreed.

«One question arising out of the move towards regulating electricity with respect to crypto-mining projects is whether the Province could begin to regulate the availability of electricity for other industries in a similar manner,» lawyers at McCarthy Tetrault, a Canadian law firm, wrote in a May 2024 post.

During the debate over the updated Act, lawyers from McCarthy Tetrault noted that the leader of the provincial Green Party argued in the legislature that Liquified Natural Gas and emerging technologies like AI should face similar energy regulations as bitcoin mining due to, what the party views as their high energy use and limited economic benefits.

Local bitcoin mining bans are not unique. New York State has a moratorium, with an exception for renewable energy. However, some states, like Arkansas and Montana, have bills that protect bitcoin miners from what they call «discrimination

Pennsylvania recently scrapped its mining ban to advance other energy conservation bills.

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Crypto Market Maker Wintermute Snags Bitcoin Credit Line From Cantor Fitzgerald

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Wintermute, a digital assets-focused market maker and OTC desk, has attained a bitcoin(BTC)-backed credit line from Cantor Fitzgerald, following similar financing deals announced last month with Maple Finance and FalconX.

Cantor said the newly launched Bitcoin Financing Business is expected to provide up to $2 billion in financing during its initial rollout. The size of Wintermute’s deal with the investment bank was not disclosed.

The lending and borrowing of crypto was taking place on an industrial scale several years back, but many of the firms involved either incurred heavy losses or were forced into bankruptcy as contagion spread through the industry. But Cantor’s debut perhaps signals a new and more institution-friendly phase.

Wintermute is currently expanding its presence in the U.S., where a groundswell of movement is happening in crypto trading under Donald Trump’s pro-innovation administration.

Institutional demand for digital assets such as bitcoin, stablecoins, and select high beta altcoins continues to accelerate, driven by catalysts such as ETF developments and shifts in interest rate environments, said Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy.

“Given the capital intensive nature of our operations, especially OTC trading, which involves managing settlement windows and maintaining capital across multiple venues, the facility enhances our ability to hedge risks effectively across exchanges and maintain broad market coverage,” Gaevoy said in an email.

Read more: Wall Street Giant Cantor Debuts Bitcoin Lending Business With First Tranches to FalconX, Maple

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BlackRock’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Snaps Four-Week Downtrend in Volumes

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BlackRock’s spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) listed on Nasdaq under the ticker IBIT rose 3.49% last week, snapping a four-week downtrend in trading volumes.

A total of 210.02 million shares changed hands in the week ended June 27, registering a 22.2% growth from the preceding week’s volume tally of 171.74 million shares, according to data source TradingView. That’s the first weekly growth since the third week of May.

The renewed upswing in volume comes amid continued demand for the ETF. Last week, IBIT registered a net inflow of $1.31 billion, following the preceding week’s tally of $1.23 billion. The largest publicly listed fund has amassed $3.74 billion in investor money this month, according to data source SoSoValue.

The 11 spot ETFs listed in the U.S. have collectively registered a net inflow of over $4 billion this month, marking the third consecutive monthly inflow.

IBIT's weekly chart with trading volumes. (TradingView/CoinDesk)

The chart shows that IBIT has formed a bull flag, mimicking the bullish continuation pattern on the spot BTC price chart.

A breakout, if confirmed, would signal an extension of the bull run from early April lows near $42.98.

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Bhutan Bets on Binance Pay to Power Crypto-Backed Tourism Economy

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Bhutan is going full tilt on crypto — not just to modernize its financial rails, but to attract high-value global travelers and build a digitally resilient economy.

At the Digital Bhutan panel, co-hosted by Binance, officials laid out a clear vision: bring crypto out of theory and into everyday life.

“Tourists complain they can’t use SWIFT or pay easily. Binance Pay fixes that,” said Damcho Rinzin, director of the department of tourism. Rinzin added that travelers are already using crypto to buy local goods — in one case, even groceries to cook their own meals.

Bhutan’s ambitions remain modest, just 300,000 visitors a year. But it wants them to stay longer and spend more — with Binance Pay’s 40 million plus user base as a lever. Binance CEO Richard Teng framed it as a shift from speculation to infrastructure.

“This is the first national crypto payments system,” Teng said. “The average crypto tourist spends $1,000 — nearly three times a regular tourist — and merchants receive instant settlements,” he added.

With over 1,000 merchants onboarded, and zero fees on Binance Pay compared to steep charges from other providers, Bhutan hopes to build a community-driven, tech-savvy ecosystem that aligns with its values. DK Bank, which played a pioneering role in Bhutan’s early bitcoin mining efforts, is now spearheading crypto adoption on the ground.

“Mobile and QR payments are already high,” said the bank’s CEO, Ugyen Tenzin said. “Crypto just fits,» he added.

«And this is just the start,» said Hobeng Lim, managing director of finance at Gelephu Mindfulness City. Gelephu Mindfulness City is a planned city in the country which merges technology, like blockchain, with culture, and sustainability.,

Lim added that they are many more blockchain-native projects in the pipeline, with digital assets formally recognized as a future growth engine.

“Crypto is not a side experiment, It’s a core industry,” Lim said.

Read more: Bhutan’s Crypto Reserve Could Pave Way for Economic Growth in Other Countries

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