Russia has extended its list of regions where cryptocurrency mining is prohibited to include Moscow, the surrounding Moscow Region and parts of Kursk Region, with the restriction running to the end of 2032.
The measure comes from a government resolution signed in late July and published days later. It bars mining outright and also prohibits participation in mining pools, closing a workaround that had let smaller operators contribute hashrate without running a visible facility. The Moscow ban took effect this weekend.
Officials have consistently framed the bans as an electricity problem. The Moscow Region's energy authorities have pointed to dozens of grid-connected data centers drawing several hundred megawatts between them, with mining loads competing against households and industry during peak demand. More than ten other regions, including parts of Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai, already sit under similar seasonal or multi-year restrictions.
The country legalized registered mining in 2024 and quickly became one of the largest contributors to bitcoin's global computing power, estimated at roughly a sixth of the network earlier this year. That growth is precisely what has drawn the restrictions: capacity added faster than the grid could absorb it.
Operators are unlikely to disappear. The practical effect of previous bans has been migration — machines moving toward Siberian hydro capacity and away from population centers — rather than a durable drop in national hashrate.