Russia's power grid just took a $14.2 million hit from crypto miners, with the North Caucasus getting wrecked for $6.6 million alone.

Novosibirsk miners managed to steal $4.4 million worth of juice before getting caught.

The entire situation has become pervasive, and Russia isn’t happy about how things are playing out.

The Big Bust

Authorities just uncovered 130 illegal mining operations, with the biggest bust of the bunch being 3,200 rigs in Novosibirsk, which were stealing $2.2 million in power.

These weren't basement operations – we're talking industrial-scale theft on a massive scale.

Somehow, these crafty miners were able to slip just under the detection of authorities long enough to score some really solid crypto bags… but now the jig is up. 

Russia's not playing games, and is moving forward with forty criminal cases hitting the courts faster than a lightning network transaction.

And starting in 2025, they're straight-up banning mining in some regions until 2031, just for good measure.

The Grid Drama

Rosseti's engineers are losing their minds over this, as illegal mines are frying transformers like cheap GPUs.

Regular folks can't even run their dishwashers because miners are hogging all the juice.

It shows that splicing electricity lines to run these illegal operations has become so pervasive that it’s started to seriously impact your average person. 

But, just as the crackdown on illegal mining ramps up, the other side of the coin picks up the slack– legal mining equipment sales just tripled.

Russians aren't stopping mining. They're just going legit.

The new tax framework is actually working better than anyone expected, helping these previously shady dealers become full-blown businessmen who comply with the law.

The Government Play

Russia finally dropped real crypto rules last November, clarifying that big miners need tax papers now.

But solo miners are still cool – as long as they don't blow up or steal from the power grid.

Rosseti's not just mad about this development – they're getting creative.

They're planning legal Bitcoin mines where they've got extra power.

Because if you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em (and tax 'em).

The Russian Bear, Or Bull?

Russia's illegal mining scene just got nuked from orbit, and the wildest days of power theft are officially over.

But that doesn’t mean mining in Russia is over – in fact, it seems like it’s just beginning.