Recently, the crypto mining industry has been facing inhibitions in certain locations like the United States and Canada. However, that is not the case with Russia.
Sources reveal that Russia has announced tax incentives for those who want to invest in crypto mining. With support from the government, a new $12 million crypto mining center will also be opening in east Siberia.
As per local media reports, the state-owned Corporation for the Development of the Far East announced the launch of the crypto mining center in Buryatia. Buryatia is a republic in eastern Siberia and part of the Russian Federation.
The local media explains that the support from the government resonates with the legal status of Buryatia, a “territory of advanced development” — a special economic zone incentivized to attract national and foreign investments. The Corporation for the Development of the Far East is a subsidiary of the Ministry of the Development of the Far East and Arctics and specializes in supporting investment projects.
The facility will possess 30,000 mining devices, have on board 100 workers, and consume 100 megawatts from the power grid. It is scheduled to open in the first half of this year and will be owned and run by BitRiver, Russia’s largest crypto-mining colocation service supplier.
Sources reveal that the mining center will enjoy a broad set of incentives, including zero land and property taxes, a lowered income tax rate, and electricity prices available at half rate for the mining operator.
There has been a complete change in Russia’s attitude towards cryptocurrencies compared to a year ago. Initially, Russia was strictly against using cryptocurrencies within its territory but with the sanctions placed on it following the war in Ukraine; it started using the asset for cross-border transactions.
The nation had also planned to ban crypto mining activities completely, but in September, it flipped its stance. In December last year, Todayq News reported the sales of a mining equipment firm from 2022, which were revealed to have been inflating as the sales figures from the first nine months of this year were 65% higher than that of 2021.
In January, the Russian central bank and the lawmakers were found to be in a feud regarding the legalization of crypto mining leading to delays in the proposed bill. Alexei Moiseev, the deputy finance minister in Russia, informed the media that the long-awaited bill, which seeks to legalize and tax industrial crypto mining, had hit another obstacle. However, the lawmaker broadly agreed with the bill, and they had hoped to speed its progress through the Russian parliament in December.