Russia’s State Duma committee advanced a bill that would penalize illegal crypto mining and unlicensed infrastructure services, with sanctions scaled by the size of violations and potential prison terms of up to five years.
A committee in Russia’s State Duma has recommended advancing a bill that would make illegal crypto mining and unlicensed mining infrastructure services criminal offenses. The proposal targets miners operating outside the state registry as well as unauthorized service providers. For violations involving more than 3.5 million rubles, penalties could include fines of up to 1.5 million rubles or two years of forced labor. If the activity is carried out by an organized group or generates income above 13 million rubles, penalties could rise to fines of up to 2.5 million rubles and prison terms of up to five years. The bill also предусматривает confiscation of cryptocurrency produced through illegal mining. Russian authorities previously said about 50,000 entities are engaged in crypto mining, but only 1,489 are registered.