Oman on June 17, 2026, became the second nation to mandate a sovereign Bitcoin mining pool. OmanHash.om, launched by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT), requires all licensed miners in the Sultanate to route hashrate through a single state-sanctioned pool...
"Each sovereign partnership enhances both operational scale and credibility." — Yersaiyn Nurtoleuov, Chief Product Officer, Enegix Global
Oman on June 17, 2026, became the second nation to mandate a sovereign Bitcoin mining pool. OmanHash.om, launched by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT), requires all licensed miners in the Sultanate to route hashrate through a single state-sanctioned pool. The pool targets 10 EH/s in its initial phase, consolidating roughly one-third of Oman's estimated 30 EH/s national output — approximately 3% of global Bitcoin network hashrate.
The mandate follows Kazakhstan's 2023 precedent with btcpool.kz and signals the emergence of a distinct regulatory category: state-operated mining pools that trade miner discretion for legal clarity, tax transparency, and government oversight. With over $700 million invested in mining infrastructure in the Salalah Free Zone alone, Oman is embedding Bitcoin mining into its Vision 2040 economic diversification strategy. The question for the industry is whether sovereign pools remain a niche Middle Eastern and Central Asian phenomenon or become a template for resource-rich states globally.
OmanHash.om operates under MTCIT oversight with two private-sector partners. Enegix Global, a vertically integrated digital energy and infrastructure company headquartered outside Oman, built the technology platform and liquidity infrastructure. Frontier Technologies LLC (Frontech), an Omani blockchain firm based in Muscat, handles local operations and pool management.
The pool uses a Full Pay-Per-Share (FPPS) payout model. Under FPPS, miners receive compensation based on shares submitted regardless of whether the pool discovers a block, with the pool operator collecting a fee. This model reduces variance for individual miners but concentrates block-discovery risk — and block template construction authority — with the pool operator.
Participation is not optional. Under the approved regulatory framework, OmanHash.om is the sole legal mining pool for all licensed cryptocurrency mining companies in the Sultanate. Unlicensed mining carries regulatory penalties. According to Olzhas Amirov, Chief Business Development Officer at Enegix Global, the model "enables governments to regulate digital mining more effectively while ensuring legal clarity, stable operations and improved transparency for miners and regulators."
Oman's mining sector has scaled rapidly since the first licenses were issued in 2022:
| Metric | Figure | Source | |--------|--------|--------| | Total infrastructure investment (Salalah Free Zone) | >$700 million | Enegix Global, Oman Observer | | Estimated national hashrate | ~30 EH/s | Hashrate Index, Q2 2026 | | Share of global Bitcoin hashrate | ~3% | Hashrate Index | | OmanHash initial target | 10 EH/s | MTCIT | | Exahertz Salalah facility investment | $370 million | Data Center Dynamics | | Exahertz Phase 1 capacity | 11 MW, 312,000 sqm | Data Center Dynamics | | Green Data City Phase 1 capacity | 200 MW | Green Data City | | Green Data City Phase 2 target | 400 MW | Green Data City | | Industrial electricity cost (2024 avg.) | ~$0.04/kWh | GlobalPetrolPrices | | Government electricity sector subsidy (2026 budget) | OMR 509 million (~$1.32B) | Oman Budget |
Two licensed operators dominate the buildout. Exahertz International, led by CEO Jad Fredrick Kharma, invested $370 million in a data hosting and mining facility in the Salalah Free Zone, operating Bitmain hydro-cooled S19 Pro+ containers. Green Data City (GDC), led by CEO Olivier Ohnheiser, received Oman's first sustainable crypto-mining license in 2022, with Phase 1 capacity at 200 MW and Phase 2 targeting 400 MW.
The Salalah Free Zone's appeal rests on subsidized electricity. Oman's industrial power tariff averaged approximately $0.04/kWh in 2024, well below the global mining breakeven threshold for current-generation ASICs. However, the Authority for Public Services Regulation (APSR) has begun subsidy reforms under Decision 2024/43 that could narrow margins for energy-intensive users. The 2026 budget allocated OMR 509 million ($1.32 billion) to the electricity sector, but the trajectory is toward cost-reflective pricing.
OmanHash is not a first-of-its-kind experiment. Kazakhstan established the template in October 2023 with btcpool.kz, built and operated by Enegix Global under Law No. 193-VII on Digital Assets, signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in February 2023.
Kazakhstan's framework requires licensed miners to operate through government-accredited pools and report revenue to tax authorities through automated systems integrated directly into the pool infrastructure. The law established obligatory licensing, mandatory pool accreditation, a state registry for mining entities, and rules for hardware and software registration.
Enegix now operates approximately 25 EH/s across sovereign and international pools, targeting 30 EH/s. The company operates data centers with capacity up to 250 MW across Kazakhstan and Canada. It is the only entity globally to have built and run multiple sovereign-level Bitcoin mining pools. That distinction positions Enegix as the de facto infrastructure vendor for the sovereign pool model — a role that carries both commercial opportunity and concentration risk.
Bitcoin's total network hashrate fluctuated between 888 EH/s and 972 EH/s in mid-June 2026, depending on measurement methodology and averaging window. The geographic distribution of that hashrate, according to Hashrate Index and Finbold data, remains concentrated:
| Country | Estimated Hashrate Share | Notes | |---------|--------------------------|-------| | United States | ~37.4% | Foundry USA dominant pool; KYC-gated | | Russia | ~16.9% | Gas/hydro powered; expanding | | China | ~12.0% | Officially banned; operationally persistent | | Oman | ~3.0% | Now sovereign-pooled | | Ethiopia | ~2.7% | State-backed; Grand Renaissance Dam power | | Kazakhstan | ~2-3% (est.) | Sovereign-pooled since 2023 |
The top three countries control approximately 66% of global hashrate. At the pool level, concentration is more severe: Foundry USA (~25.7%) and AntPool (~20.2%) together mine roughly 46% of all blocks in any given week. SpiderPool (12.4%), F2Pool (11.9%), and ViaBTC (8.1%) round out the top five, which collectively control approximately 78% of network hashrate.
Sovereign pools add a new layer to this concentration matrix. Where traditional pool concentration involves private companies that miners can theoretically exit, sovereign pools channel hashrate through state-mandated infrastructure that miners cannot leave without surrendering their operating licenses.
Oman's mining buildout is inseparable from its macroeconomic context. Oil and gas accounted for 26.2% of GDP at the time Vision 2040 was announced (2020 figures) and approximately 60% of merchandise exports. Vision 2040 targets GDP diversification through digital infrastructure, AI, fintech, and blockchain applications, with a stated goal of raising the digital economy's GDP contribution to 10% by 2040.
The core digital economy contributed approximately OMR 800 million ($2.08 billion) to GDP in 2023, according to Times of Oman. Bitcoin mining fits the strategy: it converts cheap energy — Oman's comparative advantage — into foreign-denominated digital assets, generates tax revenue through transparent pool reporting, and attracts foreign direct investment into free-zone infrastructure.
The $700 million already invested in Salalah mining facilities represents a material commitment. For context, Oman's total government expenditure in the 2026 budget was approximately OMR 11.4 billion ($29.6 billion). Mining infrastructure investment in one free zone alone equates to roughly 2.4% of annual government spending.
However, the economic model carries embedded risks. Bitcoin mining revenue is a function of hashprice — the dollar value per terahash per day — which has been under persistent compression since the April 2024 halving. If APSR subsidy reforms push electricity costs toward $0.06-0.08/kWh, margins for older-generation hardware narrow considerably. The sovereign pool mandate does not insulate miners from hashprice volatility; it merely consolidates their operational output under government observation.
The sovereign pool model forces a direct trade-off that merits explicit examination.
What governments gain: Real-time visibility into hashrate deployment, energy consumption, revenue flows, and the movement of newly minted Bitcoin. Automated tax reporting. Regulatory control over which transactions miners include in block templates. The ability to enforce compliance requirements on block construction.
What miners lose: The ability to choose their pool operator — historically the primary mechanism through which miners discipline pool behavior. Under voluntary pool selection, miners who disagree with a pool's transaction-selection policies, fee structures, or operational practices can redirect their hashrate elsewhere. Mandatory sovereign pools eliminate this exit option.
What the network faces: At 3% of global hashrate, Oman's sovereign pool does not pose a systemic threat to Bitcoin's censorship resistance. Kazakhstan adds another 2-3%. Even combined, sovereign-pooled hashrate remains below 6% of the network. The systemic question is directional: if the sovereign pool model spreads to countries controlling 20-30% of global hashrate, the implications for transaction censorship and block construction neutrality become material.
The comparison to Foundry USA is instructive. Foundry controls approximately 25.7% of hashrate through a KYC-gated, U.S.-regulated pool. While miners can theoretically exit Foundry, the institutional and contractual relationships that bind large mining operations to specific pools create practical friction. The distinction between "mandatory by regulation" (Oman) and "mandatory by commercial arrangement" (Foundry for its institutional clients) may be less sharp than it initially appears.
Ethiopia is the most closely watched potential adopter. The Ethiopian government announced in January 2026 that state-owned Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) is seeking partners to build and operate national Bitcoin mining infrastructure, with the government targeting 20-30% ownership of mega-facilities. Ethiopia already accounts for approximately 2.7% of global hashrate, powered by cheap hydroelectric energy from the Grand Renaissance Dam, with projected 2026 mining revenue of approximately $350 million.
Ethiopia has not announced a mandatory pool, but the state-ownership model creates structural incentives to consolidate output through government-controlled infrastructure.
Beyond Ethiopia, any resource-rich state with cheap energy and weak non-oil export sectors faces similar incentives. The United Arab Emirates, with its established free-zone infrastructure and proximity to Oman's regulatory template, is a logical candidate. Several Central Asian states with surplus natural gas capacity are also potential adopters of the Kazakhstan-Oman model.
OmanHash.om is a small pool in a large network. At 10 EH/s against a ~900+ EH/s global hashrate, its direct impact on Bitcoin's operational security is negligible. Its significance is structural: it validates a regulatory template in which governments assert control over the infrastructure through which their citizens mine Bitcoin, converting a permissionless activity into a licensed, surveilled, and taxed operation.
The economic logic is sound for resource-rich states pursuing GDP diversification. Cheap energy converted to Bitcoin through transparent, tax-integrated infrastructure is a rational policy choice. The centralization trade-offs are real but currently contained. The variable to watch is adoption rate: if sovereign pools remain confined to Oman and Kazakhstan, the network impact is immaterial. If Ethiopia, the UAE, and other resource-rich states adopt similar mandates, the cumulative share of sovereign-pooled hashrate could approach thresholds where transaction-selection neutrality becomes a genuine concern.
For now, two nations have built sovereign mining pools. The question is whether the number stays at two.