The exodus of bitcoin miners from China to Kazakhstan has contributed to an energy crisis that the Central Asian country's president has proposed solving with nuclear power.
Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry has been given an 8% increase in domestic electricity consumption throughout 2021 to bitcoin miners. So far this year, the country has received at least 87,849 bitcoin mining machines from Chinese companies after China cracked down on cryptocurrency digging , according to the Financial Times .
A significant increase in demand has led to a deficit in domestic energy supply and contributed to unreliable electricity services, according to Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company.
Although Tokayev did not link the proposal to the use of energy for bitcoin mining, failing to keep miners in the country could jeopardize the estimated $1.58 billion in tax revenue those miners represent. Power shortages have already forced Xive's bitcoin mining platform to leave Kazakhstan. Didar Bekbau, co-founder of XIVe, said in a Nov. 25 tweet that he had to shut down his mining company's farm due to "limited electricity supply from the grid."
