Russian authorities announced on Tuesday plans to ban cryptocurrency mining in several regions this winter in response to ongoing electricity shortages.
The ban will affect the Irkutsk region, parts of Buryatia, the Zabaikalsky region in Siberia, and six regions in the North Caucasus, including Chechnya and Dagestan. It will also extend to the Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, which are under Russian control.
The decision, made by a government commission led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, aims to curb energy consumption during the colder months when heating demand increases.
Mining in Siberia will be banned from December 1 to March 15, 2025, with annual restrictions running from November 15 to March 15 through 2031. In the North Caucasus and the occupied Ukrainian regions, mining will be fully prohibited from December 2024 to March 2031, with no seasonal exceptions, according to reports by the Kommersant business newspaper.
These measures follow recent legislation signed by President Vladimir Putin on November 1, which regulates cryptocurrency mining and lays the groundwork for experimental infrastructure related to cross-border cryptocurrency payments. While domestic crypto transactions are still banned, some lawmakers view the new regulations as a potential avenue for bypassing international sanctions.
Russia, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency mining hub after the United States, uses around 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually for mining, making up about 1.5% of the country’s total electricity consumption, according to the Ministry of Energy.
