When China started a crackdown against bitcoin mining, Chinese BTC miners decided to move toward Kazakhstan because it was considered a favorable country for bitcoin mining. Chinese bitcoin miners got welcomed by the government of Kazakhstan. But now there’s a piece of bad news for bitcoin miners because the government is planning to impose new taxes on BTC. This decision will affect the mining industry negatively. There was a briefing arranged by the government in which National Economic Minister Alibek Kuantyrov said that they are planning to link tax fees with mined tokens cost.
Alibek Kuantyrov said that this would be helpful for the country economically in tax collection. Adding more, he said that they are going to increase the tax for BTC miners and also decided to link the tax rate with crypto cost. This will be useful for the country’s budget.
The decision taken by Kazakhstan is a surprise for bitcoin miners. This situation can make think miners move to other countries where tax rates are minimum, such as El Salvador. The government of El Salvador decided to charge a flat 10 percent mining tax for the building and services of BTC City.
In the beginning, the government of Kazakhstan had a soft corner for Chinese bitcoin miners and opened doors for them with a warm welcome. Later on, there have been seen changes in the government’s stance over time. The government decided to impose new taxes. In the early stages, the government offered low-cost energy for BTC mining and introduced 20 Cents/kWh mining tax.
After a month, the government increased the price of energy by 10 times, saying that the demand for energy by bitcoin miners raised rapidly. On the one hand, the government announced new taxes on bitcoin mining, and on the other side, it began to stop many BTC mining farms from working. In this way, formal heaven turned into trouble for the BTC mining industry.
Russinovich (co-founder) of Crypto Mining Group condemned the measures taken by Kazakhstan. This firm has been operational in the country since 2017. Additionally, he said that Kazakhstan turned zero from hero due to its regulatory steps.
James Thompson