Kazakhstan, one of the world’s top Bitcoin (BTC) mining locations, is likely to lose its BTC hash rate share leadership in the next hash rate distribution update, according to industry experts.

According to Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), Kazakhstan was housing over 18% of the world’s BTC hash rate as of August 2021, following only the United States.

Kazakhstan’s BTC mining power increase was partly driven by the massive Chinese miners’ exodus triggered by China’s cryptocurrency crackdown. Prior to falling to zero as of August 2021, China’s BTC hash rate power accounted for more than 75% back in 2019.

But despite many Chinese BTC mining giants like Canaan and BTC.com moving operations to Kazakhstan in 2021, the country is likely to lose its hash rate share due to many reasons eventually, according to several industry execs. This would likely result in Kazakhstan dropping out from the top three BTC mining countries in the next CBECI update, expected to be released in March.

Bitcoin mining would eventually drop in Kazakhstan, mainly due to unsustainable power subsidies, as expected by Phillip Ng, vice president of corporate development at the data center company Soluna Computing.

“We expect that some mining will persist in Kazakhstan but do not anticipate that it will be more than 10 to 15% of global hash rate in the future. The reason is that the power subsidies in Kazakhstan are unsustainable,” Ng told Cointelegraph. He cited January reports that authorities in Kazakhstan were considering removing power subsidies to stabilize the country’s finances.

Another reason for Kazakhstan to potentially lose its BTC mining leadership is the country’s reliance on the oil and gas industry, according to Origin