Amid the Russian government continuing working hard to come up with cryptocurrency regulations, a federal ministry has made another proposal regarding the crypto mining industry. Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development has greenlighted the concept of crypto mining regulation in the country, proposing to allow mining operations in areas with “sustainable surplus in electricity generation,” local news agency Izvestia reported Tuesday. As part of the proposal, the ministry suggested introducing lower fees for setting up mining farms and data centers in specific Russia’s areas as well as offering reduced energy rates for such facilities. The ministry also wants to establish a …
In less than a month, the draft of a crypto mining bill in the Russian parliament has lost several key points, such as the obligation for mining operators to join a special registry and a one-year tax amnesty for all those who've registered. As the reasoning goes, the previous draft would lead to federal budget losses. The fresh draft of the law “On mining in Russian Federation,” dating to last Frida, appeared in the database of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma. The document bears several significant changes from the past version, presented by co-sponsors on …
The Russian government continues to establish links with major players in the cryptocurrency mining industry despite staying skeptical about legalizing cryptocurrency trading and payments. Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom Neft has entered into a partnership with BitRiver, the largest crypto-mining colocation services supplier in Russia providing hosting services for major crypto mining operations. Gazprom will provide BitRiver's partner data centers with electricity generated from the associated petroleum gas, the companies officially announced on June 16. As part of the collaboration, BitRiver will be developing a digital infrastructure based on the oil fields that Gazprom provides crypto mining services from the …
Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network agreed to let Bitcoin (BTC) miner Core Scientific shut off more than 37,000 mining rigs it had been hosting for Celsius during the miner’s bankruptcy proceedings. Core Scientific filed a revised proposed order on Jan. 3 which incorporated “revisions acceptable to Celsius” noting “all Celsius rigs will be powered down effective January 3, 2023 and will not be restarted during the transition period.” Previously, Core Scientific accused Celsius of failing to pay its power bills on Oct. 19 citing the non-payment as a major factor leading to its liquidity issues after the Bitcoin miner filed …
Customers are suing Compass Mining for over $2 million, alleging fraud, after the company cut ties with Russian hosting company Bit River and failed to return customers’ Bitcoin machines, citing a non-applicable United States sanction as the reason. According to a court document filed on Jan. 17, Compass Mining issued a notice in April 2022 that it has terminated its “relationships and dealings with Bit River” due to the sanctions imposed by Executive Order 14024. It is alleged that Compass “did not offer” to return or even retrieve the assets that its customers entrusted the company with to host at …