A report by the Association of Datacenter, Industry and Blockchain of Kazakhstan (NABDC) estimated that crypto mining will bring the country a projected revenue of about $1.5 billion over the next five years.
According to Coin Telegraph, currently cryptocurrency mining activities generate about 98 billion Pakistani tenge (US$230 million) annually in the country.
Alan Dordjieff, president of the association, issued the following statement as reported by local news agency kapital.kz: The figure of 98 billion Pakistani tenge is just an economic impact from the companies that participate Officially in mining. If we consider the (gray) miners, this number can be safely multiplied by 2.
In context, "grey miners" refer to individuals who mine their cryptocurrency—often with contested legal status.
The association has called for more regulation to combat illegal mining to prevent a potential electricity shortage.
Gray-zone miners consume roughly 500 megawatts of electricity in the country, Dordjieff estimates.
Earlier this month, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy proposed a draft order to impose limits on the amount of electricity consumed by the crypto-mining industry.
According to data from the University of Cambridge, Kazakhstan contributed 18.1% of the world's Bitcoin (BTC) mining hash rate - the second largest in the world - after China started in cracking down on mining activity. This puts it behind 35.4% of the US hashrate and above 11.23% for Russia.
Based on Global Petroleum's figures, the average cost of commercial electricity use in Kazakhstan is $0.054 per kWh, well below the global average of $0.124 per kWh - given the country's vast fossil fuel reserves.
