Parliamentarians in Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis have drafted a bill regulating cryptocurrency mining within the country.
The document allows mining only for participants of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) and for non-resident legal entities, provided they have contracts with licensed data centers.
The current notification regime for starting cryptocurrency mining activities is voluntary and regulated by an order of the Minister of Digital Development.
According to words of Deputy Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva, at present only about a third of the mining companies represented in the country are registered in the registry.
“The uncontrolled use of electricity by ‘grey’ miners poses a threat to Kazakhstan’s energy security,” she noted.
Smyshlyaeva believes the bill will be the first step in creating legal conditions for the development of the cryptocurrency ecosystem in the country; work on additional regulatory acts will continue in parallel.
“In current legislation, the mechanism for implementing mined cryptocurrency and the role of Kazakhstan’s financial-services providers are not yet regulated; the turnover of secured digital assets and the procedures for their production and establishing property rights over them are regulated only at the sub-legislative level,” the deputy emphasized.
According to the Committee on State Revenues of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in Q1 2022 miners contributed to the budget by $1.5 million.
Earlier in May, authorities in Kazakhstan approved in the first reading new tax rates for miners.
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