Russian Crypto Miners Blamed for Siberia Power Outages
Russian power providers say crypto miners are to blame for “mass” electricity outages during recent cold snaps.
Per Interfax, Rosseti Siberia, the local branch of the state-run power provider Rosseti, “recorded an increase in the volume of illegal mining at the end of 2023 in a number of regions of Siberia.”
Rosseti Siberia claimed that this spike in activity had caused over $675,000 worth of damage.
The firm also claimed miners for an increase in the “occurrence of failures and accidents on networks during recent mass outages.”
Several Siberian regions reported power problems in mid-December when temperatures fell to unseasonal lows.
Rosseti Siberia added that it had closed down 17 “illegal” crypto mining farms in the territory in the past 12 months.
The provider said it had closed “illegal” data centers operating in the Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, and Khakassia regions.
These areas become hotspots for crypto miners. Several major Russian industrial crypto mining firms have set up centers in Siberia in the past decade.
Russia’s crypto mining industry remains in a precarious position. Cheap electricity and low winter temperatures have led to a huge rise in industrial mining in Siberia.
Industry insiders claim that Russia’s mining industry is now second only in size to that of the United States.
Top miners like Igor Runets, the CEO of BitRiver, claim that following April’s Bitcoin halving event, Russian mining profitability could eclipse that of the US by thousands of dollars per coin.
While some Russian lawmakers think the nation has much to gain from fostering the crypto mining industry, power providers are worried about strains on their networks.
Miners in nearby states such as Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the de facto nation of Abkhazia have
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