Bitcoin Mining: Kazakhstan Suggests A 500% Tax Increase; Some Eye Relocating To The US, Russia

Bitcoin mining rigs are facing problems all over the globe. First, miners were evicted from China and later shifted to Kazakhstan. With its bountiful natural gas and cheap power, Kazakhstan led to miners going in droves. However, miners in Kazakhstan have been facing problems in the past few months because of internet blackouts and electricity shortages.
Kazakhstan rising fuel costs
Kazakhstan saw widespread civil unrest after rising fuel costs which led to the authorities severing internet and security clampdown. Things have slowly returned to normal, but Kazakh authorities have floated tighter regulatory conditions for bitcoin miners in recent days — a state of affairs that could spur some operations to leave the country for friendlier shores. As a result, miners are considering going for the US or Russia.
Local news outlets Kazinform reported on February 4 that Kazakh authorities are looking into hiking the tax on electricity for cryptocurrency miners from one tenge to five tenges (USD$0.0023 to $0.012).
Monthly tax on equipment
Worse, Marat Sultangaziev, Kazakhstan’s first vice-minister of finance, is mooting crypto miners to pay a monthly tax on equipment, whether or not they earn block rewards or even turn the ASICs on. The vice-minister compared the idea to a similar tax that casino operators pay on their machines.
Earlier Bagdat Musin, Kazakhstan’s minister of digital development, accused unregistered “gray” miners of consuming 1 gigawatt of the country’s electricity. Music has asked the general public to reveal details of unregistered mining operations.
The current rules in Kazakhstan distinguish so-called “gray miners” from so-called “white miners.” White miners have signed on to a new registry at the Ministry of digital development. Musin further asked unregistered gray cryptocurrency miners to come under the department’s new regime.
Earlier the government cut off cryptocurrency miners from electricity for most of January.
Kazakhstan faced widespread energy shortages and massive protests over surging fuel prices. The government cut off electricity throughout the country as those protests continued, triggering hash rate declines for major pools with exposure.
- Trump Tariffs: U.S. President Threatens 155% Tariff on China, Bitcoin Falls
- Hassett Says Government Shutdown Could End This Week as Crypto Markets Brace for Inflation Data
- ‘Floki Is The CEO’: FLOKI Surges Over 20% After Elon Musk’s Name Drop
- Breaking: Ripple-Backed Evernorth to Establish $1B XRP Treasury to ‘Accelerate’ XRP’s Adoption
- Breaking: Michael Saylor’s Strategy Acquires 168 Bitcoin as Crypto Market Rebounds
- Ethereum Price Targets $8K Amid John Bollinger’s ‘W’ Bottom Signal and VanEck Staked ETF Filing
- Pi Coin Price Eyes 50% Upswing As AI-Powered App Studio Update Ignites Optimism
- Bitcoin Price Prediction as Gaussian Channel Turns Green Amid U.S.–China Trade Progress and Fed Rate Cut Hopes
- Solana Price Prediction: Analyst Notes Bearish Breakdown Amid Derivatives Slowdown
- Shiba Inu Price Eyes Recovery as Burn Rate Jumps 10,785% – Can SHIB Hit $0.000016?
- Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction: Analyst Eyes $7,000 by Q4 as Bitmine Accumulates $281M ETH — Will History Repeat Itself?