President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed an modification to the legislation on synthetic intelligence and digitalization. These amendments will permit the mining and distribution of cryptocurrencies outdoors of the Astana Worldwide Monetary Middle (AIFC).
Beforehand, it was formally believed that corporations working within the AIFC had preferential rights to interact within the mining, buying and selling, and alternate of crypto property. Nonetheless, the brand new legislation, which is able to take impact 60 days after its promulgation, will formally give Kazakh particular person entrepreneurs and authorized entities permission to mine cryptocurrencies.
Kazakh miners to promote crypto property to different exchanges
Though the brand new legislation permits the circulation of unsecured crypto property throughout Kazakhstan, crypto providers nonetheless must acquire a license from regulators. To realize this goal, Kazakh miners not must promote the vast majority of their crypto property via the AIFC alternate.
The legislation requires us to restrict the processing interval of non-public information. of consent For instance, details about buyers who present private information to banks or digital foreign money exchanges will not be legitimate for “the interval vital to attain the acknowledged function of gathering the knowledge.”
This motion follows the nationwide introduced It intends to determine a nationwide digital foreign money reserve to carry as much as $1 billion in property, together with seized digital currencies and shares of corporations concerned within the digital foreign money area. The fund must be “operational” by early subsequent yr on the newest, in keeping with the nation’s central financial institution governor.
Bitcoin miners transfer to AI
Within the US, Bitcoin miners are shifting their focus from cryptocurrencies to AI, as Kazakhstan claims mining is worthwhile. In response to analysts at Bernstein, all main U.S.-listed Bitcoin miners are shifting their focus from Bitcoin mining to AI information facilities.
Miners have confronted an existential disaster since final yr’s halving reduce the rewards for validating Bitcoin transactions in half. Their lives have turn out to be much more tough as a consequence of decreased community exercise, lack of half of their revenue sources, and rising prices of community failures.
Cryptopolitan studies that an organization that was in a position to mine Bitcoin and earn $50,000 per coin is now caught at $100,000. On the similar time, capital prices are rising, and increasing mining operations requires massive quantities of capital for ASICs and infrastructure that may take years to pay again.
Nonetheless, this transformation just isn’t new. Van Eck predicted this could occur already final yr. He stated if the 12 largest public miners switched simply 20% of their operations to AI, their annual income would improve by about $14 billion.
Demand for electrical energy surges within the US as energy shortages are predicted to happen in 2026
Electrical energy demand can be rising in the US, with a good portion of it concentrated in Texas, primarily as a consequence of information facilities and cryptocurrency mining amenities. Buyers are subsequently hoping that electrical energy costs will fall.
Nonetheless, the U.S. Vitality Data Administration says market electrical energy costs will rise 8.5% in 2026 to $51 per megawatt hour. That is up from $47/MWh this yr, a 23% improve over 2024. Moreover, complete electrical energy gross sales are anticipated to extend by an additional 2.6% subsequent yr, following a 2.4% improve in 2025.
“The West South Central area, which incorporates Texas, will lead this improve as a consequence of elevated energy demand from the area’s information facilities and crypto mining amenities,” the EIA stated.
The Trump administration and Congress are anticipated to make use of this chance to additional speed up the change to renewable electrical energy by putting in bigger photo voltaic and wind farms and battery storage. To that finish, renewable vitality is anticipated to develop subsequent yr, probably accounting for a file 26% of all vitality generated in the US.
Mixed with maybe 18% of electrical energy coming from nuclear energy, carbon-free electrical energy manufacturing is anticipated to succeed in 62% of complete electrical energy manufacturing subsequent yr, exceeding the 40% from pure fuel.
