Kazakhstan Shuts Down 13 Illegal Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities

Kazakhstan’s government closes 13 unauthorized crypto mining farms as part of the country’s battle against illegally operating crypto mining.

13 illegally operating crypto mining farms were brought to the attention of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy, which was fast to shut them down. Together the 13 mining farms were using 200 megawatts electricity capacity.

The year 2022 had a turbulent start for the Central Asian nation as thousands of protestors occupied the streets to fight against the sitting government as electricity prices soared over night.

As part of a solution to the issue, Kazakhstan’s government promised to crack down on unauthorized cryptocurrency miners amid the accusations that they could negatively impact the nation’s energy network. Minister Bagdat Musin commented on the matter, back then:

“Gray miners are doing a lot of harm to our power grid. The energy costs of illegal mining are estimated to exceed 1 gigawatt.”

In the aftermath, the Energy Ministry discovered and shut down the activities of 13 unauthorized digital asset mining facilities, located in various regions of the country.

According to the authorities they will continue to search and disconnect mining farms from the electrical grid, which do not abide by the rules.

However, President Tokayev made a point that legally operating miners who act in accordance with the regulations should not be worried:

“The government is not opposed to “white” miners, but people who want to operate in this sector must have a license, get their electricity at the appropriate tariffs, declare their income and pay taxes, and get involved in green projects.”

Globally, Kazakhstan ranks as the second-largest bitcoin mining country, accounting for 18.1% of the global hashrate. United States leads the statistics with 35.4% hashrate.

Hashrate is a measure of the computational power per second used when mining.