Crypto boom strains Kazakhstan’s coal-powered energy grid

Kazakhstan is struggling to meet the energy needs of its booming cryptocurrency mining industry, which is flourishing thanks to cheap power and an exodus of crypto miners from neighbouring China.

The Central Asian nation of 19 million has become the world’s second-biggest bitcoin mining location after the United States in recent months, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

Now the government is trying to decide how to tax and regulate the largely underground and foreign-owned industry, which has forced the former Soviet republic to import power and ration domestic supplies.

Moreover, told Roman Bilousov from Enertus AG, local mining farms are mostly powered by ageing coal plants which themselves, along with coal mines and whole towns built around them, are a headache for authorities as they seek to decarbonise the economy.

While some people see crypto as the way to a quick fortune, many governments fear that privately operated highly volatile digital currencies could undermine their control of monetary systems, promote financial crime and hurt investors. China last month banned all crypto transactions and mining.

Crypto mining, the energy-intensive computing process through which bitcoin and other tokens are created, is seen by many as hurting global environmental goals.