The lower house of the country’s parliament has passed five bills related to digital assets. The government is trying to get a tighter hold on crypto activity, especially crypto mining, so these bills are a step in that direction.
The Russian news agency TASS said Wednesday that the lower house of Kazakhstan government, called the Majilis, has passed five new crypto bills.
Local news reports show that the first draft of at least some of these laws was only introduced at the end of September. This shows how quickly the new laws are being made. Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva, a member of the Committee on Economic Reform and Regional Development in the lower house, says that the bills deal with the issuance and circulation of “secured and unsecured digital assets.”
Smyshlyaeva also said that the bills were made “in response” to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s orders to stop problems caused by cryptocurrency mining.
After China banned crypto mining, which uses a lot of energy, miners went to other countries with cheap electricity. Kazakhstan, which has a lot of energy, became a big draw. Soon, the country ran out of energy, and the government started to crack down on the mining industry.
Since May, the government has required crypto miners to let local authorities know about their work. In July, Tokayev signed a law that raised taxes on people who mine for cryptocurrency.
Even though the bills are still in the early stages of the legislative process, people with knowledge of the situation have told CoinDesk that the bills are likely to become law.
