The Cabinet of Ministers planned to limit cryptocurrency mining in several regions until 2031

According to Kommersant, which reviewed the draft minutes of the meeting, from December 1, 2024 to March 15, 2025, it is planned to ban cryptocurrency mining in several cities and districts of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia and Trans-Territory of the Baikal. Subsequently, the ban will apply every year during peak load periods – from November 15 to March 15 – until 2031.

In the Karachay-Cherkess, Kabardino-Balkarian regions, North Ossetia – Alania, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kherson and Zaporozhye, DPR and LPR, it is proposed to introduce a complete ban on mining from December 1, 2024 to March 15. 2031, writes the newspaper.

As the publication notes, the Ministry of Energy has been fighting large cryptocurrency miners for the past few years, which the department says are aggravating local energy shortages. The main goal of the ministry is to motivate miners to move to other regions with excess energy capacity, Kommersant writes.

Deputy Energy Minister Yevgeny Grabchak announced on October 30 that mining will soon be banned in several regions. According to him, the deficit areas include the Far East, southwestern Siberia and the south, but he did not mention specific regions.

A ban on mining can only be taken as a last resort, Sergei Bezdelov, head of the Industrial Mining Association, told Kommersant. He stressed that the restrictions will provoke “the activity of unscrupulous participants in the market who carry out their activities in violation of all established rules.”

In November, the Federal Antimonopoly Service reported that the government had set a limit on the production of cryptocurrencies by Russians who had not registered an individual entrepreneur. According to the new rules, they will be able to operate per month, consuming no more than 6 thousand kWh of electricity.

Legal cryptocurrency mining in Russia became possible on November 1 thanks to a law that Vladimir Putin signed in August 2024.