Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has suggested to the newly appointed Minister of Energy, Alexey Kushnarenko, that the country should focus on developing cryptocurrency mining. This was reported by local media.
The head of state noted that he receives numerous inquiries regarding mining, indicating that the topic requires thorough examination.
“If it is profitable for us, let’s do it. We have an excess of electricity. Let them produce this cryptocurrency and so on,” Lukashenko stated.
He cited the example of the United States, where President Donald Trump instructed a working group on digital asset markets to “advance” the creation of a strategic cryptocurrency reserve.
“You see the direction the world is heading. […] Therefore, there will be demand for them. Why are we attracting some investors, selling them electricity, although I do not rule this out. But we need to do it ourselves,” Lukashenko added.
The president instructed the Minister of Energy to prepare and present a plan for the development of this sector:
“I think you will overcome this bureaucracy and report what needs to be done.”
A decree legalizing mining activities was signed in Belarus in 2017. In February 2021, the Ministry of Energy announced it was studying the prospects of cryptocurrency mining.
At the end of 2024, Belarus’s Deputy Minister of Energy, Denis Moroz, stated that the launch of the country’s first nuclear power plant enabled the development of incentivizing electricity tariffs and facilitated the growth of mining.