Japanese SBI Stops Crypto Mining in Russia

SBI Group, a Japanese financial conglomerate, recently made the announcement that it will cease all of its cryptocurrency mining activities across the entirety of Russia.

The company has discontinued its cryptocurrency mining operations in the Siberia region of Russia ever since the major conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out on February 24 of this year.

According to Bloomberg, Chief Financial Officer Hideyuki Katsuchi stated plans to sell machinery and evacuate, although he did not disclose when the withdrawal from Siberia would be completed.

The company reported that the crypto-asset business suffered its first quarterly loss in ten years due to the stoppage of mining operations in Siberia, which caused the business to post a pretax loss of 9.7 billion yen ($72 million) in the three months that ended on June 30.

The mining hash rate of SBI Crypto also declined by over 40 percent between the 25th of February and the 19th of August 2022, according to the data of the blockchain website BTC.com. It went from 5786.96 PH/S per second on February 25 to 3,563.75 PH/S on August 19, 2022.

Crypto Mining Hash Rate
Crypto Mining Hash Rate

 

 

Reason for the Stop Work

In order to avoid facing sanctions from the United States Treasury Department, the cryptocurrency mining company Compass Mining from the United States is searching for buyers for its equipment that is now located in Russia.

An estimate of $30 million has been placed on the value of the various pieces of mining equipment in the Russian region.

The United States of America made the announcement in April 2022 that it will be adding the Russian cryptocurrency mining company Bitriver to its list of sanctioned entities. Many miners have made the decision to steer clear of conducting business in Russia because of the geopolitical instability there.

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