Kazakhstan codifies tax breaks and gas-fired mining in bid to formalise crypto sector

Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has signed a decree designed to formalise the country’s digital asset market, setting out tax exemptions for regulated crypto income, rules for cross-border stablecoin settlement and a mechanism to route gas-fired electricity into Bitcoin mining. The order was announced by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development (MAIDD) on Wednesday.

The decree was drafted jointly by MAIDD, the country’s central bank and the Astana International Financial Centre, according to Cointelegraph. Officials describe it as an attempt to give crypto businesses, investors and digital asset service providers greater regulatory clarity, as Kazakhstan seeks to consolidate its position as a global crypto and mining hub.

Stablecoins written into cross-border trade policy

A central plank of the decree is the modernisation of Kazakhstan’s payments infrastructure to permit digital assets and stablecoins in cross-border settlements. The government has framed this as a way to support export and import operations while keeping such flows inside a regulated framework rather than offshore.

The order also seeks to draw activity away from unregulated foreign platforms and into licensed domestic infrastructure. Residents holding digital assets abroad will be encouraged to disclose those holdings and transfer them to approved local service providers, a move that mirrors efforts elsewhere to bring offshore crypto exposure onshore for tax and supervisory purposes.

To incentivise that shift, the government plans to exempt income generated through regulated digital asset activity from personal income tax, according to the MAIDD announcement.

Gas reserves diverted to mining capacity

On the energy side, the decree introduces a mechanism allowing associated petroleum gas and natural gas from oil and gas fields to be used for autonomous electricity generation when those resources are not required for state purposes. That power could then be directed towards digital mining operations, formally linking Kazakhstan’s hydrocarbon reserves to its crypto strategy.

Kazakhstan already ranks third globally by estimated Bitcoin mining hash rate, according to 2022 data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Separately, the government has rolled out a “70/30” energy model granting data centres and digital miners direct access to up to 70% of new power generation capacity created through infrastructure upgrades — a policy that pre-dates the decree but reinforces its ambitions.

Tokenisation and a national trading platform

The decree also outlines plans to develop tokenised financial instruments and build national trading infrastructure, part of a broader push to attract foreign digital asset investment into the Central Asian nation.

MAIDD Minister Zhaslan Madiyev said: “Our goal is to make Kazakhstan a point of attraction for global capital and expertise while ensuring maximum transparency and protection for every participant in this market.”

The measures arrive as jurisdictions across Europe and Asia tighten frameworks for stablecoin issuance and cross-border digital payments, with Brussels among those examining how to bring offshore issuers within reach of its own rulebook.

Read more: Brussels consults on widening MiCA to capture tokenisation and offshore stablecoins