Kazakhstan has cut off the power supply for crypto miners amid blackouts and a growing power crisis in a central Asian region that also includes Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, a local Bitcoin miner told Forkast.
Fast facts
- The Bitcoin miner said Kazakhstan’s authorities are blocking all electricity for crypto mining through Jan. 31, confirming a Bloomberg report.
- Kazakhstan became the world’s second-largest Bitcoin producer last year after miners moved there en masse following China’s intensifying crackdowns on crypto mining, but recent power blackouts and deadly street violence over the nation’s energy shortages have made for an increasingly fraught business environment for Kazakh miners.
- On Tuesday, massive blackouts roiled Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and some parts of Kazakhstan.
- According to Kazakh state grid operator KEGOC, this week’s blackouts were caused by an “emergency imbalance” in the central Asian power system that connects Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan — which in turn led to a power surge in a transmission line in Kazakhstan that triggered disconnections. Power is now being restored in the region.
