Kazakhstan accounts for approximately 18.1% of global bitcoin production.
Kazakhstan accounts for about 18% of the total bitcoin hashrate, however, miners have lost the ability to mine cryptocurrency due to the Internet shutdown, Chronicle.info reports with reference to Focus.
A large share of mining farms have stopped, and cryptocurrency rates collapsed amid the revolution in Kazakhstan.
On January 5, during mass protests in Kazakhstan, the authorities completely turned off the Internet, including mobile, so the mining farms lost access to the blockchain network. According to The Block analyst Larry Chermak on Twitter, a few hours later, the total hashrate of bitcoin — the computing power of devices that mine cryptocurrency — decreased by 12%. Kazakhstan accounts for approximately 18.1% of global BTC production.
Internet has been down in Kazahstan for a few hours where roughly 18% if Bitcoin & # 39; s hashrate is.
Looks like the impact on the hashrate is so far 12% drop just in the last few hours since internet went down. pic.twitter.com/FcTDsJ6R77
& mdash; Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) January 5, 2022
On the night of January 6, 2022, the price of bitcoin fell to $ 42.5 thousand.According to Coinmarketcap, at the time of this writing, the cryptocurrency was trading at $ 43.2. The service shows that over the past day, the rate of other top cryptocurrencies has significantly decreased, such as Ethereum (-9.27%), Binance Coin (-8.07%), Solana (-11.6%), Cardano (-8.51 %), XRP (-8.17%), Terra (-9%), Polkadot (-11.04%).
Not long before this, the analytical service BitMEX Research warned that the crisis in Kazakhstan could lead to a drop in the hash rate of the first cryptocurrency. As experts suggested, the dangerous situation inside the country threatens another massive migration of miners.
In the summer of 2021, many cryptocurrency miners removed their capacities from China, whose government imposed tough measures against miners. According to the Financial Times, more than 87.8 thousand mining farms were transported to Kazakhstan. As calculated by the staff of the University of Cambridge in their study, this country was in second place in the extraction of bitcoin after the United States. Interesting Engineering writes that due to miners, electricity consumption in Kazakhstan increased by 8% compared to the beginning of 2021, due to the deficit, even a rolling blackout occurred.
According to Coindesk, only on futures related to BTC, traders suffered losses in the amount of $ 317 million, with 87% of these positions betting on price increases. The decline in the bitcoin rate had a negative impact on the altcoin market, as more than 200 thousand positions were liquidated on the exchange per day. Investors on the OKEx cryptocurrency exchange suffered the most, having lost $ 241 million.And traders on Binance suffered losses in the amount of $ 236 million. Coindesk associates the fall not with the events in Kazakhstan, but with the publication of the minutes of the meeting of the US Federal Reserve System, according to which the department will reduce its balance by $ 8.3 million.
On January 2, the first protests in Kazakhstan broke out in the Mangistau region due to the increase in gas and gasoline prices, but soon they covered many cities of the country. The authorities tried to disperse the demonstrators with the help of law enforcement officers, after which the citizens demanded the resignation of the government. The decrease in gas prices did not reduce the tension.
On January 6, it became known that an anti-terrorist operation to ensure order had begun in the city of Almaty. Armed security forces and armored vehicles arrived at the central square. The city police reported the destruction of dozens of radicals who stormed the police department.