Some 55 legal mining farms decided to suspend their activities, and 51 illegal ones got dismantled; the Bitcoin hash rate marked above 200 EH/s on March 14, 2022.
At least 106 Bitcoin (BTC) mining farms suspended their activities in Kazakhstan, which appears to be a state coup against the crypto environment developing significantly in that nation, although without significant impact. The government audited the mining farms due to the lack of energetic sources the Asian country is experiencing and confiscated many pieces of equipment.
In a press release made by the Kazakh financial agency, they highlight that at least 51mining farms voluntarily stopped their activities. Other farms, 55 to be exact, got subsequently dismantled.
The crusade against Bitcoin miners came directly from the President of Kazakhstan, the Financial Supervisory Agency, and other entities linked to the current administration; they described crypto mining farms’ situation as rigorous inspections.
According to the government, the plants that went to suspend mining activities completely stopped every activity, dismantled the equipment, and detached it from the sites.
Regarding those devices taken apart by government entities, they clarified that they were carrying out their activities without notifying the authorized entity. Also, they illegally used energy sources without the required conditions to carry out the activity. They got located in the sector related to special economic zones and also managed to circumvent taxes and customs duties.
Equipment Brought Illegally
The audit discovered that Bitcoin miners came from China, South Korea, Singapore, Turkey, and Georgia. As they highlighted, it got brought Illegally from those nations.
The audit also pointrf out the particular case of the city of Almaty, where more than a thousand Bitcoin miners arrived directly from China and got valued at 2.8 billion tenges each ($5,400).
The government agency detected at least 25 criminal cases against the miners and managed to confiscate around 67,000 pieces of mining equipment, which got valued at 100 billion tenges.
The government alleged that the procedures help not only to curb the growth of electricity consumption but also to free up energy capabilities in a considerable scale. However, the administration expressed that illegal mining has increased, posing certain risks and threats to the country’s economic security.
Hashrate Over 200 EH/s
The dismantling in Kazakhstan arrived when the network processing rate (hash rate) got positioned over 200 EH/s. In data given by Glassnode, the estimated hash rate of Bitcoin was at least 209.47 EH/s during March 14, 2022.
Even when there has been no recent record of a drop in hash rate, it is still a possible rate. This information considers that Kazakhstan has received a significant part of miners since China’s ban, reaching 18% of the global hash rate. Although later, his administration turned against them, suspending services like access to electricity.
Those restrictive actions forced the miners to look for new places to mine crypto, areas like Russia or northern Kazakhstan, the predilect regions to carry out these activities. According to the Cambridge University mining map, that country gathers 11% of the global hash rate. Even after acknowledging that the Russian nation is currently facing a conflict with Ukraine, the figure still has the exact numbers.
By: Jenson Nuñez
