According to the government announcement efforts to locate and disengage mining farms from the electrical network will be continued.
As per the reports, in the next five years, Kazakhstan is predicting that the mining of cryptocurrency will be contributing around $1.5 billion to its economy. The present mining hash rate of the country ranks second in the world after the United States.
As reported by local news, Kazakhstan passed new legislation on Monday in the upper house of its parliament according to which crypto businesses might soon be regulated by Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.
Kazakhstan’s ministry of energy announced that it had located and disconnected 13 mining operations of cryptocurrency. The shutdown was carried out by the government as a part of regulating Bitcoin (BTC) mining which in recent years has become increasingly popular.
According to the official statement, a lot of energy is used by the miners which come to a total of 202 megawatts of power consumption. As per Kazakhstan, government attempts to locate and terminate mining farms from electrical networks will continue. After the detection of illegal mining operations, authorities will take operational and investigatory steps.
Power consumption has skyrocketed in Kazakhstan as the second-largest Bitcoin producer in the world after China’s crypto crackdown. As of August 2021 following only the United States, 18% hash rate of the world is hosted by Kazakhstan, according to the news reports.
Kazakhstan’s president approved the tax category creation for Bitcoin mining in June 2021, which might be motivated by the anti-Bitcoin approach of China. Chinese BTC mining businesses like BTC.com and Canaan were relocated in Kazakhstan due to Chinese restrictions.
However, a large concentration of the mining industry has been present in the country for quite some time, which is now losing its hash rate due to numerous reasons as per many sector executives, according to the news reports. Expected from next month, Kazakhstan would no longer be one of the top three BTC mining countries as per the index update.
A cabinet-level investigation was ordered for cryptocurrency mining by the Kazakhstan president on Feb 8, where Marat Sultangaziyev First Vice Minister of Finance also proposed a power price increase for crypto miners. However, President Kassym-JomartTokayev is not against mining, and miners are expected to pay taxes, electricity bills and obtain licenses.