Cryptocurrency miners and data-centre operators in Belarus have been placed in a new tariff group for electricity consumers. The change is set out in a joint постановлении by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade.
The volume of electricity consumed by organisations engaged in data processing, information storage services and related activities, including mining and the operation of data centres, starts at 25 million kWh per year and above.
The Ministry of Energy also allocated four tariff groups for this category depending on electricity consumption:
- from 25 million kWh to 50 million kWh;
- from 50 million kWh to 300 million kWh;
- from 300 million kWh to 500 million kWh;
- from 500 million kWh and above.
An additional tariff group may be allocated by presidential decree.
In 2017, Belarus signed a decree legalising mining activity.
In 2019, President Alexander Lukashenko proposed building a large data centre for mining near the Belarusian nuclear power plant.
In February 2021, the Ministry of Energy of Belarus stated that studying prospects for cryptocurrency mining.
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