Russia, which has not made a clear decision on the legal regulation of Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies, continues to move forward in mining.
According to the news of the Russian local news agency Kommsersant, the country's largest Bitcoin mining company, Bitriver, claimed that Russia has become the second largest mining center in the world.
Speaking according to the data obtained in January-March, Bitriver stated that Russia has reached the second rank in the world for the first time in terms of mining capacity.
At this point, it was stated that Russia's mining capacity reached 1 gigawatt (GW) in the first quarter of 2023.
While the United States maintains its leadership with 3-4 GW mining capacity, Canada (400 MW), Malaysia (300 MW), Argentina (135 MW), Iceland (120 MW), Paraguay (100–125 MW) are among the top 10 after Russia. , Kazakhstan (100 MW) and Ireland (90 MW).
With this rise, Russia surpassed Kazakhstan, which rose to second place in mining after the USA after China's bans.
Bitriver analysts stated that this increase in Russia is related to Kazakhstan's power outages last year and China's ban on mining activities.
BitRiver CEO Igor Runets said:
"Beside this increase in Russia, the development of the American market is slowing down due to rising electricity prices, declining mining profitability and removal of tax incentives.
In addition, the vast majority of equipment was purchased on credit by American miners, with many over-leveraged companies in the process of bankruptcy or already bankrupt.”