While Kazakhstan — a popular destination for Chinese crypto miners as they look for more regulation-friendly shores — continues to face power shortages, the country’s energy minister has said the authority will not restrict power consumption for legal crypto miners, according to a government statement.
Fast facts
- Magzum Mirzagaliyev, Kazakhstan’s minister of energy, said at a meeting with industry players that crypto miners meeting legal requirements will not be subject to restrictions or get disconnected from the power grid, so long as they don’t carry out activities that would undermine the country’s energy security.
- The National Association of Blockchain and Data Center Industry, a local industry association in Kazakhstan, also said in a statement that it is pleased to see authorities shutting down illegal miners and that it sees a bright future for the sector in the country.
- Alan Dorjiyev, president of the blockchain association, said in the statement: “Illegal Bitcoin mining is harmful to our country … While many illegal miners have set up operations in recent months, there are many Bitcoin mining companies who’ve been operating in the country for many years who fully comply with all laws, pay their taxes, and provide local jobs.”
- The association noted that Kazakhstan has taken a pro-Bitcoin mining stance in recent years, with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signing a law in June that introduced a formal tax for crypto mining in Kazakhstan.
- Power had been rationed recently in Kazakhstan after an influx of miners to the country saw electricity shortages. The energy minister has proposed to cap the nationwide total electricity consumption for new crypto miners seeking for technical permissions to connect to the power grid.
- The latest data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance indicated that at the end of August, Kazakhstan came in second in terms of global hashrate share, accounting for 18.1% of the total, up from 8.2% at the end of April.