Kazakhstan has confiscated nearly $200 million in mining equipment from unregistered miners

Kazakhstan’s push to rein in its local crypto industry has seen significant escalations.

On March 15, Kazakhstan’s Financial Monitoring Agency reported on its overall work to bring the local mining industry to heel. Among its most striking figures is that the agency says it has confiscated mining equipment worth roughly 100 billion tenge, valued at $194 million USD. 

The Financial Monitoring Agency also reported that it had registered 25 previously illegal businesses. 55 mining companies have voluntarily closed down, while the agency has forced 51 more to end their activities. 

Those activities included failure to report the start of mining operations to government agencies, illegally connecting to the electrical grid, setting up shop in special economic zones, or failure to pay taxes and customs.

Kazakhstan’s struggle with its mining industry is a relatively recent phenomenon. A flood of miners entered the country starting early last year when China outlawed mining writ large.

While the Kazakh government has not followed suit with a full ban on mining, energy shortages late last year yet the country to implement new registration requirements on taxes on cryptocurrency miners.