Cyprus is an island republic in the eastern Mediterranean with a population of around one million. Cyprus has a diversified and prosperous free-market economy that is mostly built on the its service industry, with its most important exports being medicine, agriculture and products of light manufacturing. However, the economy of Cyprus largely suffered from the eurozone banking crisis, which it has only started to recover from since 2014. Cyprus has a good investment climate due to its liberalized stock exchange and business-friendly tax system that led to the establishment of Cyprus as a financial hub for investments from Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe. The use of Bitcoin is not regulated in Cyprus. Although the Central Bank of England issued a warning statement about the use of cryptocurrencies, Cyprus continues to welcome blockchain and cryptocurrency startups, and it allows Bitcoin exchanges and ICOs.