A study by Yandex, a multinational corporation for Internet services, showed that Kazakhstanis have been searching for a variety cryptocurrency-related terms in frequency and amount several times higher this year as compared to 2017, local news outlet zakon.kz reported March 2.
The study shows that the increase in interest began in June of last year and rose in September, with Kazakhstanis asking Yandex more questions like “what is Bitcoin/Blockchain/ICO/mining?” The study notes that “what is Bitcoin” was asked the most in December 2017, when Bitcoin’s price hit $20,000.
Other search queries popular in Kazakhstan include, “can students work with Bitcoin?” “Bitcoin printing,” “what is Blockchain in simple words for dummies?” and “which mining services really pay?”
Yandex users in Kazakhstan used the word “cryptocurrency” in searches 15 times more than in 2018 than in 2017, and searched for “graphics cards for mining” 10 times more than the year before.
Kazakh users also searched for just “Bitcoin” 7 times more than in the beginning of last year, and are 4 times more likely to search “ICO” this year along with various modifiers.
In November of last year, Kazakhstan’s Astana International Finance Center announced that they were interested in releasing a fiat-based cryptocurrency, the CryptoTenge, after signing a deal with a Maltese financial broker. Also in November, it was reported that Kazakhstan is considering licensing a cryptocurrency and Blockchain lobby group to promote the new technology.