Russia ramps up search for ‘black miners’ implicated in 1.3 trillion-ruble loss

Russian grid operator Rosseti has set out to hunt down what it calls “black miners,” or those mining cryptocurrencies on stolen electricity worth billions of rubles.

The power company, one of the largest in the world, announced it’s now working with Russian telecoms to expand its toolkit for identifying illegal crypto mining farms across the vast country.

Rosseti to catch illegal crypto miners by analyzing internet traffic

State-controlled Rosseti, the energy giant uniting regional grid operators in Russia, is elaborating a new mechanism to pinpoint illegal mining facilities, its head told journalists on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Andrei Ryumin, who chairs Rosseti’s management board and serves as its director general, revealed that the company is currently working with Russian mobile operators Rostelecom and Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) on the matter, the business news portal RBC reported.

The group hopes they can identify mining farms by following internet traffic. Ryumin explained:

“For example, if data is transferred in large volumes, then this is mining. We are currently interacting with them so that they can locate such facilities and help us understand if they are legal.”

The technology to do that is there, the official added. Meanwhile, MTS confirmed it has already provided Rosseti with access to its EnergyTool, an AI-based solution that analyzes not only internet traffic but also a number of other indicators, such as data from smart electricity meters.

“Areas with abnormal traffic are indicated on the map, which helps energy workers find illegal cryptocurrency mining more effectively,” said Oleg Aldoshin, vice president of corporate business at MTS, the largest telecommunications firm and mobile network operator in Russia.

According to its stats, the number of mining farms in the Russian Federation has increased by 9% in the first five months of 2025. Mining, as an industry, has been growing since its legalization in the country last year.

To mine legally, companies and individual entrepreneurs are required to register with the Federal Tax Service (FNS) and pay their taxes. However, according to the authority, less than a third of active miners have so far done so.

‘Black miners’ caused $16.5 million in damages in 2024

According to Rosseti’s calculations, the so-called “black miners,” who tap into electricity networks illegally to mint digital coins, caused financial damages of more than 1.3 billion rubles ($16.5 million) last year alone.

In reality, the losses are much higher than the estimate, Andrei Ryumin is convinced. He also noted:

“We identify only part of the black mining.”

The differential tariff for electricity distributed to the population, which was introduced in early 2025, is only good for combating “gray miners,” the executive also remarked.

In Russia’s terminology, small miners who mine at their homes are often called “gray” as they are not required to register as mining enterprises with the FNS if their consumption does not exceed 6,000 kWh of electricity monthly.

Differential rates allow Russian utilities to keep their consumption in check as they are charged more than regular households for the larger amounts of electricity powering improvised mining rigs in basements and garages.

At the same time, “black” miners are those who burn energy completely outside the law by illegally connecting their hardware to public grids. “And the more expensive bitcoin is, the more of them there are,” the head of Rosseti pointed out.

The power giant is also keeping track of the geographical distribution of illegal mining activities. According to the company’s estimates, Dagestan, along with other Russian republics in the North Caucasus, has the largest concentration of black miners, followed by some parts of Siberia.

So far, mining has been banned in almost a dozen energy-deficient regions of the country, but critics say the restrictive measures mostly affect legal mining businesses.

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