Ban on mining in Moscow and the region: three groups of miners under threat
Starting August 15, a complete ban on cryptocurrency mining came into effect in Moscow, the Moscow region, and a number of municipal districts of the Kursk region. This decision will affect not only industrial operators, but also those who have worked in the gray area for years. As a result of the restrictions, three categories of miners are hit at once, and the consequences for each of them will be fundamentally different.
Who exactly will be affected?
The first and most numerous group is home miners. These are people who keep two or three rigs in an apartment, on a balcony, in a garage, or at a dacha. Previously, such activity was considered legal if it did not exceed the limit of 6,000 kWh per month. Now, in these regions, it is illegal in any volume. The main problem here is not only legal, but also technical: old residential wiring is not designed for round-the-clock industrial-scale load, which creates a real threat of fires and accidents.
The second category is officially registered miners. Those who are listed in the Federal Tax Service register and pay taxes properly are now forced either to completely stop their equipment or physically move it outside the restricted zones. For them, this is not just a pause, but a loss of investment in infrastructure and logistics costs.
The third group is mining infrastructure operators. These are sites that hosted client equipment for a fee: "mining hotels," hosting providers, and owners of hangars with connected power capacity. Here, we are not talking about suspending one line of business, but about completely shutting down the business in the specified territory. For them, this is a catastrophe comparable to losing the entire enterprise.
Context and consequences
The ban in Moscow is only part of a large-scale campaign. Earlier, from January 1, 2025 to March 15, 2031, full restrictions were introduced in ten regions, including Dagestan, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, the LNR, the DNR, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Later, the south of the Irkutsk region, most districts of Transbaikalia and Buryatia were added. The reason for the strictness is a shortage of capacity in the energy system and massive electricity theft. Low household tariffs make illegal mining super-profitable, but overload distribution networks, provoking accidents.
It is telling that miners are not giving up. In Dagestan, since the beginning of 2026, 52 illegal sites have been identified, 968 pieces of equipment have been seized, and damage to power grids has exceeded 129 million rubles. Five criminal cases have been opened. In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, a farm was disguised as an apiary, and in the Tyumen region, as beehives. In the Irkutsk region, equipment was hidden right in the forest, connecting to power line poles bypassing meters.
My view: This ban is not a temporary measure, but a signal of a systemic tightening of regulation. For the industry, this means that only those who are ready for full transparency and work in energy-surplus regions will survive. Gray schemes are becoming deadly dangerous, and I expect further contraction of the market in central Russia with a flow of capacity to the east and south of the country.