One of the largest underground crypto mining busts in recent memory just happened — and it’s wild. 😳
Authorities in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai region have raided and shut down a 30,000 sqm illegal crypto mining farm that was stealing electricity and operating on state-owned land.
🔍 What Went Down?
📍 The farm was hidden in plain sight — inside an industrial zone in the town of Nazarovo, Siberia.
⚙️ It used scores of transformers, generators, and cooling units, and was mining $BTC
58,000) worth of crypto each month.
Despite being fenced off with barbed wire, the location was registered as a “non-residential building” under a management company. But inside? Full-blown mining operation connected illegally to the power grid.
👮 Investigators found:
Unauthorized power usage
Fire safety violations
State land abuse
Fraudulent leasing under a fake building
Even after being warned, the operator ignored legal notices. So prosecutors got a court order to shut it down.
💣 More Shocking Details:
The energy company tipped off prosecutors after detecting power instability in the grid.
The miners’ illegal setup risked citywide blackouts.
Back in February, an energy staffer in the same region was caught taking bribes to ignore illegal crypto mining rigs.
Those rigs alone stole $BTC 119,000 worth of electricity.
Krasnoyarsk is now officially one of Russia’s top 3 crypto mining hotspots, joining Irkutsk and Tatarstan.
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📌 Bottom Line:
Illegal mining isn’t just unethical — it’s dangerous. From fire risks to stealing electricity, these shadow operations hurt real infrastructure.
As crypto continues to grow, regulators are tightening the grip
— especially on off-grid, unlicensed mining.