After China officially ended crypto mining in 2021, many miners moved abroad, including to the United States, but now Russia has taken second place.

The Russian government has turned pro-crypto.

A common aversion to crypto is found in less democratic countries, but that's not the case with Russia today. Initially, the country's central bank thought crypto should be banned, but the Ministry of Finance reversed its decision a few days later. The sector would not be banned, but instead regulated.

In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian financial sector was banned from the SWIFT payment system. Cryptocurrencies became very popular in Russia after that, and the country was even ranked third in terms of cryptocurrency growth.

According to President Vladimir Putin, the country was even at the forefront of bitcoin mining, as evidenced by the state investing in crypto mining through state-owned companies.

The second largest crypto miner in Russia

Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Russia is the second largest producer of Proof-of-Work coins nationwide due to its 1 gigawatt mining capacity. Only in the US is the capacity three to four times larger. The information was obtained by BitRiver, a large Russian miner, according to Kommersant.

There are also states around the Persian Gulf (700 megawatts), Canada (400 MW), Malaysia (300 MW), Argentina (135 MW), Iceland (120 MW), Kazakhstan (100 MW) and Ireland (90 MW) on the list.

The Russian interior is particularly flourishing in mining, mostly because electricity is cheaper and it is colder. It also has the advantage of being a major energy producer. In the beginning of this year, the government considered expanding energy production further in favor of mining.

65% of Bitcoin's hashrate, according to Kommersant, came from China in 2020, while 7.2% and 6.9% came from the US and Russia, respectively.