Oman centralizes mining: all licensed miners are required to connect to the national pool
Oman has taken a decisive step toward state control over the cryptocurrency mining sector. The country's authorities have officially launched a national mining pool, which all licensed miners are now required to join. This is the first initiative in the Persian Gulf region to unite private operators under a single state infrastructure.
The project was implemented by Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology in partnership with Frontier Technologies. The key technological platform and liquidity infrastructure were provided by Enegix Global. Thus, Oman is not just creating a local pool but also integrating it with global markets through a professional liquidity provider.
At the initial stage, the national pool is expected to accumulate about 10 EH/s of computing power. For comparison, this is comparable to the capacities of medium-sized public mining companies. Since 2022, investments in mining and related data center infrastructure in the Salalah Free Zone have exceeded $700 million. This amount includes, in particular, the construction of a hydro-cooled mining facility worth $370 million — one of the largest such facilities in the region.
From a market analysis perspective, Oman's decision appears logical: a centralized pool allows authorities to control hash rate distribution, ensure regulatory compliance, and, importantly, collect taxes on operations. However, for international investors, this could signal a reduction in the flexibility of the local market. In the long term, such measures could lead to a decrease in capital inflow from independent miners who prefer jurisdictions with minimal intervention.
My expert assessment: Oman is setting a precedent for other Middle Eastern countries where mining is actively developing. If the model proves successful, we will see similar initiatives in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. However, the key risk is the efficiency of pool management: bureaucratization could reduce its competitiveness compared to decentralized alternatives.