Protests in Kazakhstan hit bitcoin
Against the background of protests in Kazakhstan cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC) rate updated three-month anti-record, falling below $43 thousand per coin. The value of the coin is collapsing amid Internet blackouts in the second largest mining country in the world.
Bitcoin network collapsed shortly after the Kazakh authorities blocked citizens’ access to the wired Internet
The aggregate processing power of all miners (hash rate) in the Bitcoin network collapsed shortly after the Kazakh authorities blocked citizens’ access to the wired Internet, to which BTC mining pools are connected, due to mass protests. According to CoinWarz, in the first hours after the shutdown on January 5, the overall hash rate dropped from a peak of 229 hashes per second (EH/s), which was observed on January 1, to 168 EH/s.
On his Twitter, The Block analyst Larry Chermack writes of a 12% drop in hash rates. Pools 1THash (down 82%), OKEx Pool (46%) and KuCoin Pool (23%) suffered the most. The indicator of other large pools decreased to 20%.
It is worth noting that Kazakhstan accounts for 18% of all hash activity in the Bitcoin network. Therefore, we can judge that the shutdown did not affect all production facilities.
However, the incident had a direct impact on the value of the first cryptocurrency. According to the cryptocurrency exchange, on the night of January 6, the BTC rate briefly fell to the indicators of September 2021 – $42,600.
By 10:00, the price had corrected to $43.2 thousand. Thus, the rate fell by 7% during the day, while capitalization decreased to $816 billion.
Losses of market participants amounted to $810 millions
On this background, losses of market participants amounted to $810 millions data of Coinglass service say that due to the fall of the rate, margin positions of 208 thousand users of crypto exchanges were closed involuntarily.
Kazakhstan came second in bitcoin mining after China banned all cryptocurrency-related activities. The territorial proximity to China and the cheapness of electricity in Kazakhstan – 20 tenge/kWh (1.24 UAH) for non-household consumers contributed to this.
Large-scale protests in Kazakhstan over rising gas prices have not subsided since January 1. They have already resulted in casualties among protesters and security forces, mass detentions, a state of emergency is in effect in many cities, and the government has requested the deployment of troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
