Russian law enforcement authorities have recently raided the country's largest unlicensed cryptocurrency mining facility and seized over 1,000 mining devices.
The Bitcoin farm was discovered on an industrial site in Irkutsk, the capital of the Siberian region of the same name, which has banned the minting of digital coins in response to energy shortages.
Russia closes large mining farm in Irkutsk
Russian authorities have shut down one of the largest unlicensed cryptocurrency mining operations this year during a raid in a major city in southeastern Siberia's Irkutsk region.
The local branch of Russia's main investigative agency announced in a Telegram post that agents of the Investigative Committee had seized more than 1,200 mining machines.
The illegal facility was built on the premises of the production site on Rue Rosa Luxembourg, business news portal RBC's crypto page reported, citing the announcement.
Electricians and members of the Russian riot police also took part in the search, which was carried out as part of a criminal investigation into suspected electricity theft.
The press release further details the hardware numbers.
“1,257 miners and 66 rigs with video cards were discovered, two electrical substations and 10 electricity meters were seized.”
Employees of a local power company are currently assessing the economic damage caused by the operators of large farms, and they will be prosecuted for large-scale fraud under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Investigators also intend to identify the mining pools the farm was connected to in order to determine how long the farm was active and how much cryptocurrency was mined.
Illegal mining remains a headache for Russian authorities
Mining has been a legal business in Russia since Moscow recognized it as an industrial activity and regulated it in 2024.
However, to mine completely legally, companies and individual entrepreneurs who consume more than 6,000 kWh of electricity per month must also register with the Federal Tax Service (FNS). Equipment must be registered as well.
Places like Irkutsk attract many mining companies because of their low electricity costs and cool climate. The concentration of miners has been blamed for worsening energy shortages, which have been addressed with seasonal or permanent restrictions.
So far, about a dozen Russian regions have introduced such measures, from the Far East of Siberia to the Russian republics of the North Caucasus and the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.
Irkutsk Oblast is one of them. Authorities have imposed a complete ban on the minting of digital currencies in the southern part of the region, including the administrative center, until spring 2031.
Local authorities are being very proactive as illegal mines like the one discovered this week overburden nearby distribution networks.
In such areas, many of which are residential areas, breakdowns and power outages occur frequently. Many are connected to the power grid illegally.
In addition to economic losses to power companies, cryptocurrency miners operating outside the law are also damaging Russia's budget revenues.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, estimates published in early October show that the Russian state loses more than $120 million a year from tax evasion in this sector.
Speaking at this month's FinTech Forum, Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov highlighted that less than a third of all participants in the industry are registrants.
The largest illegal mining facility in recent years was dismantled in June. During a raid in the Angarsk metropolitan area of the province, where mining is also prohibited, law enforcement officers discovered more than 2,100 pieces of mining hardware.
