Russia-based Sality watched for copied bitcoin and Ethereum addresses and quietly replaced them with the attacker’s. CrowdStrike and law enforcement have now isolated more than 15,000 infected machines.
- Southern Siberia is home to many of Russia’s biggest industrial crypto miners.
- Reports of ‘serious’ 3,000 MW power shortage.
- Miners say the ban leaves them ‘vulnerable.’
Power chiefs in two Russian Bitcoin mining hotspots have welcomed reports of an incoming year-round ban on crypto mining.
A government commission, which will convene in the coming days, is poised to ban all crypto mining operations in the southern part of the Republic of Buryatia and the entirety of Zabaykalsky Krai, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
And officials in Buryatia have expressed their approval, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
“A complete ban on crypto mining is one of the measures that will help us stabilise the power supply,” said a Buryatia Ministry for Transport, Energy, and Road Development spokesperson.
The ban comes as Russia looks to expand its Bitcoin mining industry, yet power grid-related issues continue to frustrate industrial players, who say they’ve been left “vulnerable” by mining bans.
Wintertime ban to expand
Crypto mining is currently banned in southern Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai from November 15 to March 15.
But the new measures, which are set to take effect on January 1, 2026, will outlaw mining in the areas indefinitely. Moscow has previously imposed similar measures on other Bitcoin mining hotspots, such as the Irkutsk Oblast, “until 2031.”
The new ban comes despite Moscow’s insistence earlier this year that no further mining bans were coming. But power grid issues appear to be incessant in Southern and Eastern Siberia, as well as the North Caucasus.
The Buryatia ministry spokesperson said that power shortages in Irkutsk, Zabaykalsky Krai, and Buryatia itself “have reached nearly 3,000 MW.”
Setback for Russian miners
The ban is a blow for the government, which is looking increasingly likely to regulate crypto in 2026. As recently as October, the Deputy Energy Minister Yevgeny Grabchak told reporters the ministry did not expect to introduce any further bans in 2025.
The Ministry of Energy, meanwhile, told Kommersant it has not received any further requests to ban mining from other Russian regions.
Per Russian law, regions must appeal directly to the central government if they want to introduce a ban, with Moscow having the final say on the matter.
The Industrial Mining Association, a group that comprises some of the country’s biggest industrial players, expressed dismay. The association told Kommersant that new restrictions “reduce [Southern Siberia’s] attractiveness to investors.”
It said that the ban will “put market players who operate legally […] in a vulnerable position.”
According to the association, some miners have already moved their rigs out of areas like Irkutsk, while others have simply “abandoned their equipment.”
Tim Alper is a news correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email at tdalper@dlnews.com.
- Russians spend over $27 million on Bitcoin, Ethereum funds since June-July launch.
- Funds are operated by Moscow Exchange and based on BlackRock ETFs.
- Central bank ‘unbothered’ by sharp rise in popularity.
Crypto-keen Russians are spending millions of dollars on domestic financial products based on BlackRock Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds.
That’s according to the country’s central bank, which, according to the Russian outlet RBC, says that the worth of individual investments in cryptocurrency futures contract funds on the Moscow Exchange, the MOEX, currently totals over $27 million.
The majority of investors are “building small portfolios” of shares in the funds worth up to $6,430, the bank said. But the largest contributions are “made by a few larger-scale investors, whose open positions are worth more than [$1.3 million],” it added.
Considering the funds launched as recently as mid-July, the data points to growing crypto adoption rates in Russia, as investors look for alternatives to international markets.
No systemic risk to economy, says bank
The bank said it was unconcerned by the development. “Total private investments in Russian financial instruments related to [cryptocurrencies] amount to approximately [$48 million],” the bank said. “This does not pose any systemic risk to the Russian economy.”
The Moscow Exchange launched its first futures contracts, based on share prices of the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, in early June.
MOEX followed up with a similar product based on the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF in July.
The central bank also noted, in its quarterly financial stability report, that the volume of Russia-linked trade on overseas crypto exchanges has fallen in recent months.
This drop will come as a surprise to some, with other statistics from Russia pointing to a rise in adoption rates.
At the end of September, it said, the majority of Russian citizens’ crypto on overseas crypto exchanges was held in Bitcoin.
The bank thinks Russian citizens collectively hold $7.7 billion worth of Bitcoin, as well as almost $2 billion worth of Ethereum and altcoins worth $2.7 billion.
Bank monitors citizens’ crypto trading data
The central bank compiles its data using a tool named Transparent Blockchain, developed in part by Rosfinmonitoring, the Russian anti-money laundering agency.
The government says Transparent Blockchain lets it analyse the volume of inflows and outflows of funds from Russian citizens’ wallets to some of the largest centralized crypto exchanges in the world.
The bank said that it monitored transactions at Binance, Bitfinex, Bittrex, Bybit, Gate, HTX, KuCoin, Mexc, OKX, Poloniex, and “several other exchanges popular with Russians.”
However, the bank conceded that there may have been a growth in the number of Russians using decentralised exchanges in recent months. And it said that this may explain the sharp drop in centralized exchanges’ Russian user numbers.
Tim Alper is a news correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email attdalper@dlnews.com.
