The Senate of Kazakhstan Passes Strict Crypto And Mining Bills
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s crypto adoption pushspurs lawmakers in Kazakhstan to pass bills regulating crypto and mining.
The government of Kazakhstan has outlaws cryptocurrency transactions that are advertised and will now require miners to buy only electricity that is surplus from the public grid. These new changes come with a bill known as the “On Digital Assets of the Republic of Kazakhstan” which also regulates crypto mining in other ways within the country.
Central Bank Introduces Stricter Regulations for Crypto sphere
The Mäjilis, or the lower house of Parliament for Kazakhstan, has recently agreed upon several cryptocurrency-related bills. These include the “On Digital Assets of the Republic of Kazakhstan” and four other bills to help regulate crypto mining throughout the nation.
Miners can only purchase electricity from the power grid if there is an surplus available. In addition, miners can only buy through the Kazakhstan Electricity and Power Market Operator (KOREM) in an auction for electricity. The higher bidder will win the auction.
Furthermore, mining licenses will be divided into two categories. The first category is for digital miners who own the infrastructure such as data processing centers with appropriate requirements for equipment, location, and security. The second category is for digital miners who rent cells in data processing centers and do not claim an energy quota.
Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva, a member of the economic reform and regional development committee in Majilis, said:
The bill, in addition to mandatory accreditation, introduces separate requirements for mining pools in terms of the location of their server capacities in Kazakhstan and compliance with information security rules.
In addition, taxes related to cryptocurrency have been established, including a tax on miners, a commission from mining pools, value-addedtaxes , and businesses that operate crypto exchanges.
Although some aspects of cryptocurrency trading are legal in Kazakhstan, according to Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva, it is mostly experimental and advertising related to crypto trading will soon be banned.
Could This Impact the Crypto Adoption Plan of the President?
After President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev approved legalizing crypto trading and mining in the country, Kazakhstan has introduced several crypto-progressive initiatives. In September, a draft law on cryptocurrency mining was presented to efficiently regulate crypto mining operations.
On October 6, Binance was granted a permanent license by the AIFC Financial Services Authority (AFSA). Furthermore, the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NKB) has announced plans to integrate its central bank digital currency Digital Tenge with the BNB Chain.