Kazakhstan Crypto Mining Restrictions After Energy Crisis: What You Need to Know in 2026

Back in 2021, Kazakhstan was the world’s top Bitcoin mining hub. Miners flooded in, lured by cheap electricity and lax rules. But by 2023, the lights were going out in homes, hospitals, and schools because of power shortages. The cause? Illegal crypto mining rigs running nonstop, siphoning off enough electricity to power entire cities. What followed wasn’t just a policy tweak-it was a full-scale government crackdown that reshaped the entire industry.

The Energy Crisis That Changed Everything

In early 2022, power outages hit Kazakhstan hard. In cities like Almaty and Ust-Kamenogorsk, residents faced daily blackouts. Hospitals ran on generators. Schools closed. The government scrambled for answers. Investigations revealed that unregulated mining farms were consuming up to 15% of the country’s total electricity-sometimes more during winter peaks. One operation in East Kazakhstan Oblast alone was using 50 megawatt-hours of power. That’s enough to supply 60,000 people. And it wasn’t even legal.

Utility workers were in on it. Some were diverting power meant for neighborhoods straight to hidden mining farms. The money from these operations flowed into luxury apartments in Astana and high-end cars. By mid-2023, the government had had enough. The mining boom had become a national emergency.

Legal Mining Now Requires a License-And a Lot of Paperwork

Kazakhstan didn’t ban crypto mining. It just made it nearly impossible to do it without permission. As of 2025, you can only mine if you have a license from the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA). There are only 84 active licenses issued so far. Each miner must register every single machine with the National Association of Blockchain and Data Center Industry. No exceptions. No gray areas.

Miners now have to buy electricity through a state-controlled platform run by the Ministry of Energy. And you can’t just order as much as you want. Each transaction is capped at one megawatt-hour. That’s roughly enough to run 50 high-end ASIC miners for a day. If you need more, you need to justify it-and prove you’re not hoarding power.

75% of Your Crypto Must Be Sold Locally

Here’s where it gets even tighter. If you mine Bitcoin or Ethereum in Kazakhstan, you’re required to sell 75% of your output on licensed exchanges inside the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). That’s up from 50% in 2024. The goal? Keep the profits inside the country’s financial system. It forces miners to pay taxes, report income, and stop laundering money through offshore wallets.

It also means you can’t just dump your coins on Binance or Coinbase and walk away. You have to go through a regulated local platform. That’s a big shift for miners used to global liquidity. But it’s also a way for the government to track every transaction-and collect taxes.

15% Tax and the Risk of Losing Everything

Kazakhstan doesn’t just want control-it wants its cut. All legal mining operations pay a flat 15% tax on profits. That’s higher than many other mining jurisdictions, but it’s still lower than the penalty for breaking the rules.

Get caught mining without a license? Your equipment gets seized. Your bank accounts frozen. Your property confiscated. In 2024, authorities seized over 4,000 mining rigs and shut down 36 unlicensed exchanges. They also raided homes in Astana, taking luxury apartments bought with illicit mining profits. One case involved a mining operator who bought a $2 million penthouse using Bitcoin mined illegally. The apartment was seized within weeks of the raid.

Renewables Are the New Lifeline

The government knows it can’t keep shutting down miners forever. So it’s trying to make mining part of the solution-not the problem. A new proposal called the 70/30 energy program invites foreign investors to build new thermal power plants. In return, 70% of the power goes to the national grid, and 30% is reserved for licensed miners.

That’s not the only plan. Solar and wind farms are being built specifically to power mining operations. In the Altai region, a 100-megawatt solar farm now supplies three licensed mining farms. The idea? Use renewable energy that’s otherwise wasted during low-demand hours. It’s a smart pivot-turning environmental concerns into a business model.

Who’s Still Mining in Kazakhstan Today?

The big players are still there. Companies from the U.S., Canada, and Russia have set up shop under the new rules. They’ve paid the fees, registered their rigs, and adapted to the 75% sales rule. Some even say the system is working better now. No more blackouts. No more corruption. Just clean, regulated mining.

But the small operators? Most are gone. The cost of compliance-licenses, taxes, mandatory sales, equipment registration-is too high for hobbyists or solo miners. What’s left is a leaner, more professional industry. Think of it like the difference between a garage band and a signed label act.

What Happens If You Try to Work Around the Rules?

Some miners still try. They hide rigs in basements. They bribe local officials. They use fake company names. But the government’s surveillance is now sophisticated. The Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) and National Security Committee (KNB) track energy usage patterns. If a building’s power draw spikes at night and never drops, they come knocking.

Last year, a mining ring in Shymkent was busted after their electricity usage matched the profile of a known illegal farm. They were using 120 kilowatts-enough for 1,000 miners-without a license. The operators got prison sentences. Their equipment was melted down and sold as scrap.

The message is clear: if you’re not licensed, you’re not just breaking the law-you’re risking your freedom.

How Kazakhstan Compares to Other Countries

Russia has a similar approach-register your rigs, pay taxes, no anonymous mining. The U.S. is patchy, with states like Texas letting miners run wild while New York bans them outright. But Kazakhstan is one of the few countries that turned a crisis into a blueprint. It didn’t just ban mining. It built a system to control it.

France is even experimenting with using nuclear power surpluses for mining. But no other country has tied mining so tightly to its national grid, tax system, and financial infrastructure. Kazakhstan’s model is becoming a case study in how to manage crypto without killing innovation.

What’s Next for Kazakhstan’s Crypto Mining Scene?

The government is pushing for a national digital asset registry. By 2027, every mining rig, every wallet, every transaction might be tracked in real time. There’s talk of requiring miners to hold a portion of their assets on local exchanges-just to keep capital flowing through the economy.

Legislators like Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva are pushing to decriminalize crypto trading for users on licensed platforms. That could mean more people buying Bitcoin legally, not just mining it. The goal? Make Kazakhstan a hub for regulated digital finance-not just energy-hungry hardware.

For now, mining here is possible. But it’s not easy. It’s not cheap. And it’s not anonymous. If you’re thinking about mining in Kazakhstan, you’re not just buying electricity-you’re buying into a state-controlled ecosystem. And if you don’t play by the rules, you won’t be mining for long.