Police Seize 500 Bitcoin Miners Near Irkutsk

Law enforcement in the Irkutsk region uncovered illegal cryptocurrency mining operations and confiscated the equipment. This was reported by the local department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

According to the investigation, residents of TSN “Molodezhnoye” and DNT “Uyutnoye” connected 500 ASIC miners to the power grids supplying the district’s population. The miners paid for electricity at a preferential rate intended for household use.

This resulted in damage to the region’s power system amounting to over 200 million rubles.

The equipment has been seized, and criminal cases have been opened for illegal electricity consumption and large-scale fraud.

Earlier, the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets recommended the first reading of a bill on the regulation of mining activities. According to its provisions, the extraction of digital currencies will be permitted for Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs included in the relevant register.