by Jonathan Agozie 
The Republic of Tatarstan is preparing to build Russia’s largest Bitcoin mining facility, worth $100 million.
The Republic of Tatarstan is preparing to build Russia’s largest Bitcoin mining facility with an investment of around $100 million, according to local news reports. The project, set to be undertaken by Innopolis Tech, a fintech company controlled by Nikolai Nikiforov, Russia’s former communications and press minister, was announced by Roman Shaykhutdinov, a deputy prime minister of Tatarstan, at a crypto forum in Kazan.
Shaykhutdinov revealed that the facility’s hash rate is expected to reach 3 exahashes per second, potentially making it a significant force in the global crypto-mining industry, though the construction timeline and investor details remain undisclosed.
Russia’s Bitcoin Adoption Grows
Despite these ambitious plans, Russia needs clear regulations for crypto miners. Recently, lawmakers introduced a bill to regulate the crypto mining market, allowing only registered Russian legal entities and entrepreneurs to mine. Individuals can mine without registration but must follow government energy consumption limits.
Anatoly Aksakov, one of the bill’s authors, stated that the bill could be enacted as early as September this year. The proposed legislation would require miners to provide the authorized body with information about the digital currency they receive from their activities, as well as their identifier addresses. Additionally, the bill proposes granting the government the authority to ban mining in certain regions.
According to a local news report, In February, BitRiver-B, a subsidiary of BitRiver and a Bitcoin mining company targeted by OFAC sanctions, announced plans to launch the largest data center for energy-intensive computations in Eurasia in the second half of 2024. Sergey Bezdelov, director of the Association of Industrial Mining, reported that the data center is expected to have a capacity of 100 megawatts.
“This is the largest facility among all data centers in the Republic of Buryatia and the Far Eastern Federal District. As of today, BitRiver’s investments in the project exceed 1.4 billion rubles [~$15.1 million],” Bezdelov said.
Overall, Tatarstan’s new project highlights the region’s commitment to becoming a significant player in the Bitcoin mining industry, despite the regulatory uncertainties surrounding cryptocurrency mining in Russia.
