The Republic of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture and Information has officially declared the blocking of the Coinbase website within the country. Local IP addresses have been restricted from accessing Coinbase since at least September, as confirmed by the authorities in Kazakhstan.
As per a report from local news outlet Kursiv on November 7, the Ministry of Culture and Information sanctioned the block on the Coinbase website following an order from the Ministry of Digital Development. The latter accused Coinbase of violating the Law on Digital Assets, which was established in February 2023. This law prohibits the issuance and trading of digital currencies and crypto exchange operations without a national license, approved by the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), Kazakhstan’s special economic zone. Currently, Binance, Bybit, CaspianEx, Biteeu, ATAIX, Upbit, and Xignal&MT have received approval from the Astana Financial Services Authority, the regulator of the AIFC.
The issues with accessing the Coinbase website were first noted in September, as highlighted by the local Telegram media Finance.kz, which referred to the ‘great Kazakh investment firewall’ that restricts access not just to Coinbase but also to Kraken and other major international crypto exchanges.
Kazakhstan has implemented rigorous regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies, extending to its significant mining sector, one of the world’s largest. In October, eight prominent cryptocurrency mining operators addressed President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an open letter, expressing the industry’s distress due to high energy prices affecting miners.
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