Cryptocurrency mining has always been in somewhat of a legal gray zone. However, as Russia's war costs are increasing and incomes decreasing, the country wants to tax cryptocurrency mining. To make this happen, Russia is preparing to move cryptocurrency mining from a regulatory gray zone into the core of its criminal law, with penalties ranging from fines to prison terms of up to five years. The draft legislation is expected in 2026, reports CNews.
The Ministry of Justice has proposed amendments to the Russian Criminal Code that introduces Article 171.6, which would establish liability for "unlawful mining of digital currency" and "illegal operation of mining IT infrastructure." The key trigger for criminal responsibility is not mining itself, but the presence of large-scale damage to citizens, organizations, or the state, or the extraction of income on a large scale. Mining conducted by individuals or entities not included in the Federal Tax Service register would fall under this provision if certain limits are met.
Under the proposed legislation, basic offenses could be punished by a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles ($18,870), compulsory labor for up to 480 hours, or forced labor for up to two years. However, mining conducted by an organized group, mining activity that results in especially large damage, or income obtained on an especially large scale would carry significantly harsher penalties. These includes fines ranging from 500,000 to 2.5 million rubles ($6,289 - $31,445), forced labor for up to five years, or imprisonment for up to five years with an additional fine of up to 400,000 rubles ($5,031). In addition, Russia wants to charge for illegal intermediary activity in the cryptocurrency market.
The Ministry of Justice has already published the draft amendments on the official legal acts portal and completion of the legal framework is expected by July 1, 2026. It is unclear when this bill becomes a law, but according to CNews, the illegal intermediary activity — which is set to be viewed as a form of illegal banking — will be prosecuted starting July 1, 2027.
The proposal builds on rules already in force since 2024, under which cryptocurrency mining in Russia is permitted for legal entities and individual entrepreneurs registered in a dedicated Federal Tax Service registry. Private individuals are allowed to mine without registration, but only within an electricity consumption cap of 6,000 kWh per month and with mandatory reporting of mined assets, which creates a clear boundary between tolerated personal activity and industrial-scale operations. As a result, the proposed criminalization is the next step in regulating the cryptocurrency economy and taxing it, something which will bring more money into the Russian budget that has been hit by sanctions for years now.
In addition, Russia is considering controlled access to cryptocurrencies even for non-qualified investors, albeit with strict limits on transaction volumes and investment size. On the one hand, this might help some people hedge their money amid inflation. On the other, it exposes such investors to volatility, fraud, and losses that will not be covered by the government (unlike in cases of a bank collapse).
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
