Last week, Cointelegraph reported on the seizure of 3,800 PlayStation consoles allegedly being used to mine cryptocurrency. The confiscated gaming units were among a stash of hardware discovered by Ukrainian authorities during a raid on a farmhouse accused of tampering with electric meters to steal power from the local grid. Based on the initial reports at the time, the PS4 consoles, graphics cards, processing units and other hardware found at the scene was being used for illegal crypto mining operations. However, according to an investigation by Ukrainian business publication Delo, the seized PlayStation consoles were being used to generate content …
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is collaborating with law enforcement authorities in Ukraine to take down some large-scale money laundering schemes. Working with the exchange, Ukraine’s cyber police identified and arrested a group of criminals involved in a $42 million ransomware and money laundering operation, Binance told Cointelegraph in a criminal investigation report on Aug. 18. According to the report, the criminal group has been laundering millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies since 2018. A Binance representative said that the suspects were all Ukranian nationals, and were arrested in June 2020. According to Binance, the group was primarily operating in …
Police in China arrested 22 suspects allegedly involved in illegal crypto mining activity that led to energy loss worth of about $3 million, reports XinhuaNet, the official press agency of China, on July 12. Police in Jiangsu, China’s eastern-central coastal province, have reportedly seized 4,000 hardware units that were illegally used to mine cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin (BTC) at nine factories. According to the report, Jiangsu police launched a criminal investigation after a local power firm reported an abnormal spike in electricity consumption. After almost two months of investigation, the police in the city of Zhenjiang in Jiangsu detected a …
The state authorities of China’s Sichuan province will investigate local bitcoin (BTC) mining farms that have been allegedly been built illegally, local media agency Sina reports on May 30. Located at the bitcoin “global mining capital” of Sichuan, the bitcoin mining farms with over 30,000 bitcoin mining machines have been reportedly constructed without an official approval from the local government, and are thus subject for further examination. Specifically, the alleged illegal mining farms are located along the Sichuan’s Dadu river, a major Chinese river that will host the world's biggest embankment dam called Shuang Jiang Kou, which is currently under …
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 …