U.S. Treasury Attacks Russian Crypto Miners With New Sanctions
For the first time, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has issued sanctions on a Russian crypto mining firm and its subsidiaries.
According to a United States Treasury Department’s press release, the new sanctions aimed at bitcoin mining in Russia are justified with to the ongoing war in Ukraine. BitRiver is ranked as the third-largest bitcoin miner in the world.
The Treasury department announced that reliance on fiat payments and the importation of computer equipment makes Russia vulnerable to sanctions, if the U.S focuses on targeting companies providing the above mentioned services.
While it’s extremely challenging to stop the actual process of mining bitcoin, the U.S Treasury is now attacking sectors that weaken the supply chain.
Brian Nelson, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, commented:
“Treasury can and will target those who evade, attempt to evade, or aid the evasion of U.S. sanctions against Russia, as they are helping support Putin’s brutal war of choice. The United States will work to ensure that the sanctions we have imposed, in close coordination with our international partners, degrade the Kremlin’s ability to project power and fund its invasion.”
Crypto mining firm, BitRiver, and its ten subsidiaries are affected by the sanctions. Despite that BitRiver is now owned by a Switzerland-based holding company, it was originally founded in Russia, and still has three offices operating out of the country.
The new sanctions against BitRiver are part of a list of about 80 sanctions against companies and individuals published on Apr. 20. Most of these sanctioned entities are not related to crypto and blockchain, but many are related to banking and finance.
The new sanctions are targeting Russia, which had an advantage in crypto mining due to its vast energy sources and cold climate, which together are ideal for crypto mining. 11.23% of all Bitcoin mining worldwide in August 2021 was coming from Russia.
