Moscow mining ban set
Russia has expanded its cryptocurrency mining ban to incorporate Moscow, the Moscow Area, and components of the Kursk Area, with the restrictions formalized in Authorities Decision No. 936 and signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on July 25, 2026.
“Government Resolution No. 936”
The ban is about to take impact on August 15, 2026, and stay in place by December 31, 2032, overlaying each direct cryptocurrency mining and participation in mining swimming pools from the affected territories.
The measure is justified by the Russian Ministry of Power as a option to forestall a possible shortfall in vitality capability, with the Anadolu Ajansı report saying the Ministry had warned that energy-intensive mining amenities pose danger of vitality capability shortfall.
The restrictions additionally goal eight municipal districts in Kursk Oblast and the town of Lgov, whereas Russia’s Ministry of Power estimates that mining consumes about one gigawatt throughout the Moscow energy system, with roughly half of that demand falling inside Moscow and the encompassing area.
Knowledge facilities and grid
The ban’s rationale is tied to electrical energy demand from computing infrastructure, with finance.biggo reporting that Moscow and the Moscow Area are dwelling to 65 information facilities linked to the electrical energy grid with a mixed capability of 734 megawatts.
finance.biggo additionally says the Moscow vitality system requires no less than 950 megawatts of further era capability, and that officers venture whole information heart capability in the capital area may attain 3.6 gigawatts by 2032, representing about 17% of the system’s most load.
In a separate framing, Bitbo says Russia’s Ministry of Power printed a draft decree that might ban cryptocurrency mining in Moscow, Moscow Oblast, and components of Kursk Oblast for greater than six years, with the ban taking impact July 1, 2026 and remaining in place by December 31, 2032.
Bitbo provides that Governor Alexander Khinshtein pointed to the continued battle in Ukraine as a serious driver of Kursk Oblast’s energy disaster, and that the Kursk ban particularly targets eight districts together with the town of Lgov.
Compliance and penalties
Russia’s restrictions are designed to restrict business electrical energy demand in the affected border districts, with the wording of the decision overlaying each mining and participation in mining swimming pools so miners can’t preserve tools energetic in Moscow whereas arguing the cryptocurrency is produced by a company registered elsewhere.
“Igor Runetswas transferred from house arrest to pretrial detention”
Cointribune says the ban’s lengthy length extends till December 31, 2032 and that operators have only some weeks to conform, together with relocating tools and addressing obligations to landlords.
Bitbo experiences {that a} separate invoice transferring by the State Duma would criminalize unregistered mining actions, with penalties together with fines of as much as 2.5 million rubles and jail sentences of as much as 5 years.
The coverage change comes alongside separate authorized scrutiny of Russia’s mining trade, with PortalCripto noting that the brand new measure was printed a couple of days after BitRiver founder Igor Runets was moved from home arrest to pretrial detention and that investigators say a deal involving mining tools and the vitality group En+ led to losses of 1 billion rubles, estimated at US$12.5 million.
