Oman mandates that all legal miners operate through a single state-run pool — a national hash consortium has been launched.
A sovereign approach to regulating cryptocurrency mining is reaching a new level. The Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology of Oman, together with Frontier Technologies, has officially launched a national mining pool. From now on, all licensed digital asset miners in the country are required to connect to this infrastructure.
The technological core of the project is Enegix Global, which provided not only a platform for pooling computing power but also liquidity infrastructure. This means the pool will function not just as a hash rate aggregator but also as a tool for efficiently managing mined assets.
Scale and Investments
At the initial stage, the national pool will consolidate approximately 10 EH/s of computing power. For comparison, this is comparable to the hash rate of some large second-tier private pools. However, the key here is not the current volume but systemic control over the entire industry.
Since 2022, total investments in mining and data centers in the Salalah Free Zone have exceeded $700 million. Particularly noteworthy is a hydro-cooled mining facility worth $370 million — one of the most expensive and technologically advanced projects in the region.
My analysis: Oman is purposefully building a model of state capitalism in the crypto industry. Mandatory connection to the national pool is not just a regulatory whim but a tool for monitoring, taxation, and controlling cryptocurrency flows. If other Gulf countries follow this example, we may see the formation of a regional hash cartel under state auspices. For private miners, this means a loss of anonymity and flexibility, but for sovereign funds, it is an opportunity to monetize electricity with maximum efficiency.