A mining company operating in Kazakhstan can now lock in a regulated electricity price for a decade, but there's a catch: every month, 10% of what it mines goes straight to the state. That's the core of the framework approved by the government on July 18, following a presidential decree signed on July 7. The setup is unusual enough to be worth unpacking.
The mechanics work like this. Eligible miners sign 10-year power contracts with regulated pricing, something that matters enormously in an industry where electricity is the main cost. After deducting power and transmission expenses including VAT, companies hand over a tenth of the remaining mined bitcoin each month. Those coins go into dedicated wallets managed by the Astana Hub Autonomous Cluster Fund, which then passes them along to the National Investment Corporation of the National Bank. That corporation holds them as part of a newly created National Strategic Crypto Reserve.
The first 300 megawatts of power for the program comes from Ekibastuz GRES-1, one of the country's largest coal-fired plants. It's a telling detail: Kazakhstan's mining boom was always built on cheap thermal power, and the government is now formalizing that relationship rather than walking away from it.
Who actually qualifies
The bar to enter the program is high on purpose. A company needs to own a data center with at least 150 MW of capacity, and its mining rigs must hit at least 150 terahashes per second per unit. There are also operational requirements: two separate internet service agreements, an on-site equipment repair center with trained staff, and a clean tax record before the application even goes in. A government commission checks compliance and available grid capacity before any approval is granted.
Once approved, each company must open a dedicated crypto wallet for strategic mining operations. Independent auditors review the books annually, with reports due before April 1 each year. If a company comes up short on its monthly bitcoin transfer, it has 30 calendar days to make up the difference.
Kazakhstan has been building out its digital asset infrastructure steadily. The country already runs a regulated exchange through the Astana International Financial Centre, and moves like institutional bitcoin investment gaining momentum globally give the government more reason to treat its mining output as a strategic asset rather than just a tax base. The new rules extend that logic: instead of taxing miners in fiat, the state takes a cut in the asset itself.
Whether the reserve grows into something meaningful depends on how many large operators qualify and sign up. At 10% of net output across several hundred-megawatt facilities, the accumulation could be substantial over a decade, assuming bitcoin prices hold or rise.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
