Massive demonstrations, to protest the increase in fuel prices over the past few days in Kazakhstan, made the local government take extreme steps. One of them is by turning off internet services which can disrupt the communication of the protesters. However, the step of the blackout of internet services has a wider impact.
Quoting CNBC International on Friday (7/1), the shutdown of the internet in Kazakhstan has an impact on bitcoin miners.
Kazakhstan itself is the second largest bitcoin mining center in the world. As a reminder, China expelled all cryptocurrency miners some time ago. Some of them fled to neighboring Kazakhstan and opened shops.
Unrest in Kazakhstan due to soaring fuel prices has trapped miners. When internet access was cut off to quell the riots, 15 percent of the world’s bitcoin miners fell too
“No internet, no mining,” said Kazakh Didar, one of the miners in Kazakhstan.
This then saw bitcoin fall below $43,000 per chip for the first time since September 2021.