Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry plans a massive hike in electricity prices for crypto miners

Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy has introduced a new bill that threatens to stifle the cryptocurrency mining industry in the Central Asian nation, CoinDesk's Anna Baydakova reports. Published on Friday, the bill would initiate a sharp hike in the power rates charged to miners. The bill states (via translation) that “to stimulate power saving, raise the effectiveness of power consumption in industries and the non-commercial sector, and to endorse the rational use of electricity,” businesses working with crypto assets, including miners, will be obliged to pay a rate three times that currently charged for their business category, no matter their power capacity.