Kazakhstan, one of the world’s biggest Bitcoin mining hubs, has announced plans to introduce new crypto regulations to reduce tax fraud and unlawful business operations.
It has been reported that a new law signed by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on February 6 reinstated the nation’s stand against the unlawful mining operations and issuance of crypto assets. Out of the two distinct pieces of legislation, the first requires the secured digital assets issuers to have the government’s permission.
However, such issuers will be subject to monitoring by the existing law of the land — “On Combating the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and the Financing of Terrorism.” The law will enter into force from April 1, 2023.
The report said that the second legislation targets unsecured digital assets, typically earned through crypto mining operations. To reduce the possibility of tax evasion, crypto miners in Kazakhstan will be forced to sell at least 75% of their revenue via registered crypto exchanges. This rule, which aims to collect “information on the income of digital miners and digital mining pools for tax purposes,” will be effective from January 1, 2024, to January 1, 2025.
Likewise, all crypto mining licenses in Kazakhstan are issued for a limited period of three years and differ based on whether or not the miner owns the mining facilities. Alongside introducing the above laws, Kazakhstan launched the pilot of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) project — the “digital tenge.”
Berik Sholpankupov, the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) and crypto exchange Binance, NBK deputy governor, said:
“In Kazakhstan, we also started a practical R&D project to explore how our CBDC – Digital Tenge, can bridge the world of crypto with traditional fiat payments infrastructure.”
Thus, previously, in October 2022, Kazakhstan’s Astana Financial Services Authority granted Binance a permanent license to manage a digital asset platform and provide custody services.
Source: Cointelegraph