Russia’s Bitcoin mining hotspots are consuming more energy than ever, a new study has revealed, with crypto adoption continuing to soar nationwide.
Per the Russian state-run news agency TASS, the study was compiled by the domestic credit ratings firm ACRA Ratings.
Russia’s Bitcoin Mining Hotspots: The North Caucasus and Southern Siberia
The study revealed that in the North Caucasus-based Republic of Ingushetia, the annual energy consumption growth rate “jumped” up by 40.8%.
Ingushetia, Russia. (Source: Timur Agirov [CC BY-SA 4.0])Russian-occupied Crimea took second place in the electricity consumption table, with a growth rate of about 14%.
However, most of the rest of the top eight regions for energy consumption have closer links to the crypto mining sector.
Third-placed Kabardino-Balkaria – also in the North Caucuses – saw an increase of 11.5%. Another North Caucuses republic, Chechnya, followed in fourth with 10.5%.
Southern Siberia, the traditional heartland of the Russian Bitcoin mining industry, was also well-represented in the top eight.
The Altai Republic was in fifth spot with a year-on-year growth rate of 10.3%, with Buryatia in seventh place with 8.3% and Irkutsk Oblast in eighth with 7.8%.
The Rostov Oblast in Southeastern Russia, was another seeming anomaly, placing sixth with a growth rate of 8.5%.
However, interest in crypto mining appears to be on the rise in both Crimea and Rostov. In August last year, Vedomosti South reported that around 3% of all new crypto mining hardware purchases in Russia now come from the Rostov region.
And 14.5% of the “Russian South’s” new crypto mining hardware orders were placed from Crimea last year, the same report claimed.
Inside an illegal crypto mining “farm” in Irkutsk, Siberia. (Source: Baikal Daily/VK/Screenshot)Crypto Mining Not the Only Factor Driving Power Consumption Growth, Says ACRA
The ACRA Ratings data also showed that the wider Siberia region’s power consumption growth increased by 5.5%.
The firm called crypto mining one of the “main” factors driving the growth. But it also spoke of other factors, including “research” at the “Eastern Test Site,” a nuclear weapons testing site.
It also mentioned “an increase in exports to China,” as well as a rise in “military-industrial complex enterprise-related” power usage.
And it added that “increased household consumption, especially in the south of the country,” was another factor.
The ratings firm concluded that the Unified Energy System of Russia – the operator of almost 450 power stations nationwide – would likely experience a 3% year-on-year rise in 2025.
Calls for Crypto Mining Bans Growing Louder
Many of Russia’s Bitcoin mining hotspots say that the load on their grids is now becoming uncontrollably high.
Some, such as Irkutsk, have called on Moscow to issue year-round bans on crypto mining in parts of the Oblast until at least 2031.
Russian crypto mining industry chiefs estimate that around 90% of domestic miners focus their efforts on Bitcoin (BTC).
Smaller numbers of firms also mine coins like Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC), while many home-based miners prefer to focus on ETH.
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