SBI Holding Plans To Shut Down Mining Operations in Russia

• The company not only mines Bitcoin but also Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.
• The precise date when SBI will end its cryptocurrency mining in Russia is still unknown.

Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings, according to a Bloomberg report, is winding down its cryptocurrency mining activities in Russia. One of the reasons for the decision, according to a company spokesman, is the general unpredictability of the mining industry in Siberia as a result of the sanctions put on Russia as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia may be able to circumvent economic sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western nations by engaging in cryptocurrency mining, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned earlier this year.

Effect of US Sanctions

A spokeswoman for SBI said that since the Bitcoin mining industry became less lucrative this year due to the general decline in cryptocurrency prices, the company took that into account. The company’s cryptocurrency mining arm, SBI Crypto, has been operating overseas mining farms outside of Japan since August 2017, and it opened its mining pool to the public in March 2021.

The company not only mines Bitcoin but also Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV. According to BTC.com, the SBI Bitcoin mining pool is the eleventh largest in the world with a hash rate of 2.46 EH/s, contributing 1.2% to the network as a whole. The precise date when SBI will end its cryptocurrency mining in Russia is still unknown.

SBI’s spokeswoman said that the company would have to sell all of its mining equipment in Siberia before the withdrawal is finalized. This changed in April, when the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on BitRiver, a Swiss mining corporation with many subsidiaries in Russia, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Recommended For You:

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Backs US Crypto Derivatives