Bitcoin miners in Russia worry about sanctions as government starts collecting wallet addresses

Russian bitcoin minors fear exposure to sanctions while the government compiles a register containing portfolio addresses and other sensitive data.

Bitcoin (BTC) minors in Russia are not delighted with a new government register that collects sensitive data, including cryptographic portfolio addresses, under new rules. If he is disclosed, it could be a “great gift to our geopolitical opponents”, warned Anton Gorelkin, a Russian legislator supervising the information policy.

The register of crypto minors in Russia has been operational since November 2024. The national register is available via the service on Russia Federal Tax Service. Daniil Yegorov, head of the tax agency, mentioned Earlier than about 150 minors submitted registration requests during the first three weeks of the register operation.

In A telegram message On February 7, Gorelkin said that Russian cryptography minors are now concerned about the register, fearing that data leak could expose sensitive information and lead to sanctions. The tax agency reassured him that the data is stored in a “separate internal system”, Gorelkin, noting that everyone, even within the agency itself, has access to it and that access external is “practically impossible”.

“And although cybersecurity experts like to repeat the mantra” everything that can flee, will eventually flee “, the Federal Tax Service claims that the risk of sensitive information fleeing from its internal systems is now reduced to zero.”

Anton Gorelkin

In 2024, Roskomnadzor, Watchdog of Russian communications responsible for the ban on YouTube, Discord and Viber, among hundreds of other VPN services, recorded 135 data leaks, with more than 710 million Russian recordings fleeing online.

The tip of leaks occurred while companies were faced with low fines. But at the end of 2024, the Duma of the Russian State adopted a bill increasing fines for data violations. Before the changes, companies could not be sentenced to a fine of up to 100,000 rubles (around $ 1,000), but after update, the maximum fine rose 150 to 15 million rubles (around 150 $ 000).

The mining sector of Russian cryptography is not directly under international sanctions, but some companies have always been taken in cross fires.

In April 2022, the control of the American department of foreign assets sanctioned Bitriver AG, a Swiss portfolio company with operations in Russia, which was the first time that an cryptographic mining company was targeted. Rapid advance until March 2024, and the OFAC struck 13 Russian entities, including fintech companies such as B-Crypto, Masterchain, Militkhaus and Atomiz, for having helped to escape sanctions through Crypto services.