New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law Tuesday that imposes a two-year moratorium on certain kinds of bitcoin mining that depend on carbon-based power. Hochul hailed the law as the first of its kind in the country, and, indeed, industry insiders told CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos that they think it could set off a domino effect. The measure confronts environmental concerns about the amount of computing energy used to mine bitcoin, but it also comes during a period of chaos and upheaval in the crypto industry due to the sudden collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.
