Crypto miners are falling in droves at the moment. This does not only apply to small miners. Even big guys are having a hard time, like the largest bitcoin (BTC) miner in the world, Core Scientific. But in Russia, miners are celebrating.
Russian bitcoin miners are expanding despite bear market
There they hit according to the Russian newspaper Compelling precisely ASIC hardware, i.e. bitcoin miners, in. Chilkoot, the local mining hardware retailer, sold more in October and November than it did in the entire third quarter of this year, despite the market being worse now than it was then.
In the past nine months, it would even have sold 65% more hardware than in the whole of 2021. Suddenly, with a single (average) order, they would already be selling 30% more than at the beginning of this year.
Due to all the stopping bitcoin miners and the bear market, the prices of ASIC machines have fallen sharply. These machines are not only used to mine coins, they are also used as collateral for debts. Now that they are falling in value, these loans are therefore at risk, and so are the companies. But in Russia the problems seem to be less serious.
BTC mining in Russia still profitable
The enormous revival in Russia is not a complete surprise. The Russian ruble had an inflation rate of 12.6% in October after peaking at around 18% in April. The economy in Russia has been hit hard by the sanctions, so the population will look for a way out.
Meanwhile, many miners in Europe and other countries are struggling with sky-high energy prices, but Russia is a huge energy producer. Due to the sanctions, it cannot simply sell its fuels, which means that energy prices have risen less rapidly. As a result, mining in Russia is still profitable, while miners in many other countries have great difficulty remaining operational at all.
Moreover, many governments are not fond of crypto mining, but this seems to be different in Russia. Here the government has been very pro-bitcoin since this year, Vladimir Putin even says it is leading the way in mining.