Kazakhstan approves new mining rules to fund $1B Bitcoin reserve

Kazakhstan just formalized one of the most aggressive state-level Bitcoin mining strategies on the planet. On July 23, the government approved what it calls the “Rules for Implementing Strategic Crypto Mining,” a framework that gives approved mining companies locked-in electricity rates for up to 10 years. The catch: miners have to hand over a portion of their mined Bitcoin to a national fund targeting up to $1 billion in crypto reserves. How the deal actually works Mining companies that pass the government’s approval process get access to capped electricity quotas, essentially a guarantee that their power costs won’t spike for a full decade. In return, those miners contribute a slice of their freshly mined digital assets to the Astana Hub Autonomous Cluster Fund. That fund is managed by the National Investment Company of Kazakhstan. The target: accumulate up to $1 billion worth of crypto in national reserves. Kazakhstan has been building toward this for years. The country legalized mining operations back in 2020 and passed its Law on Digital Assets in 2023. In 2025, the government announced plans for a national crypto reserve fund valued between $500 million and $1 billion, seeded...