Recent reports note that Russian Law Enforcement is seizing Bitcoin from illicit crypto miners in the region. Over the past few quarters, the region has become one of the major hotspots for miners.
In its press release dated June 2, 2025, the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee (SKR) of Amur Oblast noted that it had seized Bitcoins worth millions of rubles from a former electricity executive.
It is worth noting that the accused is described as the former head of technological connection services at the Amur branch, and the DRSC (the Far Eastern Distribution Company) is an electrical grid provider.
Why did Russia initiate the Bitcoin seizure?
The provided information by SKR says that the accused used his expert knowledge of his firm to siphon electricity, and then the power was used for Bitcoin mining.
Investigators further argued that the man was “ mining cryptocurrency in his own residential building, using his knowledge in the field of technological connection to electrical networks.”
Notably, the man used roughly 3.5 million rubles of electricity in the DRSC. Furthermore, the SKR said he also leveraged his skill to bypass meeting devices in 2024.
Last year, the authorities in Russia were reported to have seized hundreds of mining rigs that were used without a proper license, however, it is now confirmed if the authorities had seized Bitcoins at that time or not.
A quick brief of Russia’s electricity production & consumption
A few available research notes that the electricity consumption of Russia in 2025 is forecasted at 1,226.2 TWh, which is 3% greater than that of 2024. As of May 2025, year-to-date electricity consumption has mirrored a decline of 0.9%.
In the past year, fossil fuel accounted for 64% of electricity, while clean energy contributed 36%, with nuclear power at 18% and renewable energy at less than 1%.
The carbon intensity of Russia’s electricity in the past year was 449 gCO2/kWh, with per capita emissions at 3.8 tCO2, more than twice the global average.
Russia’s power production will likely manage to fill the demand by 2025, with only a few percent left for other activities, including mining or selling the electricity.
Crypto market price updates
When writing, the crypto market capitalization was $3.31 trillion with a slight surge of 0.47%, and the trading volume was $105 billion. At the same time, the crypto fear and greed index was at 57, indicating neutrality in the market.
Bitcoin is still tumbling in between the range of $104k to $105k, until publishing it was exchanging hands at $105,387 with a trading volume of $44.09 billion.
Ethereum is at $2,630 with a slight greenness of 0.52%, and its market capitalization is $317.78 billion, and the trading volume is $16.58 billion.
According to the data from CoinMarketCap, the intraday gainers list has been ruled by SPX690,0 followed by Quant, Uniswap, Four, Sky, and Injective.
