The Birth of a Russian BTC Mining Hub
TASS says energy professionals think that crypto mining “has been widely carried out in Irkutsk since 2019.”
They claimed that the rise of Irkutsk as a mining destination was largely “due to a ban on cryptocurrency mining in China” and “the lowest electricity tariffs for the population in the country.”
Officials said that most miners “are illegal,” adding that they typically “install equipment in houses, apartments, garages, summer cottages, and balconies.”
As of September 1, industrial crypto mining is now legal in Russia as the nation seeks a way to circumvent US and EU-led sanctions.
However, miners must register their operations with a central regulator.
Pro-Russian bloggers says Moscow's forces push into two eastern Ukrainian cities https://t.co/VIKiYhjS3r pic. .com/79rct5DYmJ
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 2, 2024
They may also be obliged to pay higher electricity rates. And provinces now have the power to temporarily force miners to shut off their rigs when their grids are overloaded.
In July, Irkutsk authorities seized 500 rigs from a similar agricultural community, with prosecutors pressing charges against another suspected illegal miner back in May.
Experts say that at least 90% of Russian crypto miners focus their efforts on Bitcoin.