Bitcoin miners in Russia worry about sanctions as government starts collecting wallet addresses

Russian Bitcoin miners fear exposure to sanctions as the government compiles a registry containing wallet addresses and other sensitive data.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners in Russia aren’t thrilled about a new government registry that’s scooping up sensitive data, including crypto wallet addresses, under new rules. If leaked, it could be a “big gift to our geopolitical opponents,” warned Anton Gorelkin, a Russian lawmaker overseeing information policy.

The crypto miner registry in Russia has been up and running since November 2024. National’s registry is available through the service on Russia’s Federal Tax Service. Daniil Yegorov, head of the tax agency, mentioned earlier that about 150 miners submitted registration requests in the first three weeks of the registry’s operation.

In a Telegram post on Feb. 7, Gorelkin said Russian crypto miners are now worried about the registry, fearing a data leak could expose sensitive information and lead to sanctions. The tax agency reassured him that the data is stored in a “separate internal protected system,” with Gorelkin noting that not everyone even within the agency itself has access to it and that external access is “practically impossible.”

“And although cybersecurity experts like to repeat the mantra “everything that can leak, will eventually leak,” the Federal Tax Service claims that the risk of sensitive information leaking from its internal systems is now reduced to zero.”

Anton Gorelkin

In 2024, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications watchdog responsible for banning YouTube, Discord, and Viber, among hundreds of others VPN services, recorded 135 data leaks, with over 710 million records of Russians leaking online.

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The spike in leaks came as companies faced low fines. But by the end of 2024, the Russian State Duma passed a bill raising fines for data breaches. Before the changes, companies could only be fined up to 100,000 rubles (around $1,000), but after the update, the maximum fine skyrocketed 150-fold to 15 million rubles (around $150,000).

Russia’s crypto mining sector isn’t directly under international sanctions, but some companies have still been caught in the crossfire.

In April 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned BitRiver AG, a Swiss-based holding company with operations in Russia, which was the first time a crypto mining company was targeted. Fast forward to March 2024, and OFAC hit 13 Russian entities, including fintech firms like B-Crypto, Masterchain, Laitkhaus, and Atomaiz, for helping to evade sanctions through crypto services.

Read more: Sanctioned BitRiver sees Russia poised to surpass US in Bitcoin mining by 2027 with Kremlin’s support

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