BTC mining ban saved Russia 300MW since January: report

A ban on BTC block reward mining in Russia during the winter months saved the country’s northern region of Siberia over 300 megawatts of electricity, the country’s Ministry of Energy has revealed.

Russia proposed the ban in November 2024, which took effect on January 1, 2025. It’s set to last until 2031 and affects the vast northern region of Siberia and some regions President Vladimir Putin‘s government has annexed from Ukraine, including Donetsk and Luhansk.

During a recent meeting focused on BTC mining regulation, the ministry revealed that consumption on the Siberian power grid had dropped by more than 300MW, and it believes this was due to the mining ban.

For context, an average American home consumes 900 kWh/month, while the global average is lower at 500 kWh/month. As such, the energy saved in Siberia could have powered between 240,000 and 400,000 homes for a month.

Russia’s Energy Ministry said the energy savings prevented the Siberian grid operators from taking extreme measures during peak demand periods, such as rationing and blackouts. In Siberia, blackouts can have dire consequences, especially in January, which is usually the peak of the winter season, and temperatures can drop to -40°C.

The ban only lasts for the winter months, and as spring starts mid-March, Siberian miners will be back in business. However, some government officials, like Governor Igor Kobzev of Irkutsk province, have called for a year-round ban.

Mining ban spurs underground operations

The Energy Ministry’s latest claims contradict other reports from Russia, which indicated that consumption in some Siberian regions went up in January. Irkutskenergosbyt, the power grid operator in Irkutsk province, revealed that demand went up 1% year-over-year in January. The company added that this was unusual as this year’s winter wasn’t as harsh as last year’s.

EnergyTool MTS, a Russian energy metering platform, also revealed that energy consumption by Russian BTC mining farms grew 7% last year. In Irkutsk in particular, mining activities surged 18% despite the ban.

According to Andrey Kharitonov, who heads Irkutskenergosbyt, while the ban in Siberia pushed out some miners, it drove others to set up underground operations. He says that the grid operator had noted that in several apartment blocks, hourly consumption doesn’t change much, even during the night, indicating that they house equipment that runs 24/7.

The Industrial Mining Association has also admitted that illegal mining may have increased due to the new restrictions. Director Sergey Bezdelov told one outlet that it couldn’t rule out the possibility that following the winter ban, “some of the market players who carried out their activities in accordance with the law will cross over to the other side of the legal field and will violate it” to prevent downtime.

Alena Narinyani, the director of the Russian digital asset marketing agency Crypto-A, concurs. She told one outlet that while the ban may stop a few legal players, it will likely lead more to underground operations. It will also allow illegal miners to “understand that the decisions they made were correct, and will start hiding well.”

Mining hardware firm Bgin Blockchain files $50M US IPO

Elsewhere, Bgin Blockchain has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States and is seeking to raise $50 million. The Singaporean firm, which manufactures mining rigs and operates mining farms, filed its prospectus with the SEC recently, seeking to list on Nasdaq under the trading ticker “BGIN.”

Bgin intends to offer around 60 million Class A ordinary shares and 16 million Class B ordinary shares. It plans to channel the IPO funds to research and development as it seeks to expand its product suite.

Bgin was founded in 2019 as a ‘crypto’ miner, and for the next three years, it generated revenue exclusively from block reward mining. In 2023, it started designing and manufacturing its mining rigs, and since then, this has been its main business line. In the year ending June 2024, it generated $392 million in revenue, with sales of mining rigs accounting for 85% of the income.

Bgin still operates mining operations. Its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that it hosts over 4,000 machines for its customers, mostly in the U.S. states of Iowa and Nebraska.

The Singaporean firm joins a rising number of digital asset firms exploring IPOs under the ‘pro-crypto’ Trump administration. They include Israeli social trading platform eToro, Winklevoss twin-owned exchange Gemini, Peter Thiel-backed exchange Bullish and USDC issuer Circle.

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