BITCOIN SEASON 2: Inside Russia's Secret Bitcoin Mining Industry

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4.8 • 689 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anna Baydakova discusses Russia's dramatic shift toward Bitcoin, covering mining legalization, the crypto exodus, sanctions impact, and how Russians use Bitcoin to survive economic isolation and preserve wealth amid political repression. Anna Baydakova, Senior Reporter at CoinDesk joins us to talk about Russia's complex relationship with Bitcoin. From Putin's surprising embrace of crypto mining to the grey market of mining rig distribution, Anna reveals how sanctions transformed Russia's crypto landscape. We explore Siberian mining operations and why Russians increasingly turn to Bitcoin as both protest and preservation against an authoritarian regime. Link to the full report: https://blockspace.media/insight/in-between-worlds-the-state-of-bitcoin-mining-in-russia/ Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: • Russia legalized Bitcoin mining in November 2024 • Hash rate dropped 10-15% after Ukraine invasion • Electricity costs $0.02-0.04/kWh in Siberia • Putin shifted from anti-crypto to pro-mining • Telegram channels became primary crypto platform Timestamps: 00:00 Start 01:16 Russia mining overview 02:56 Past 3 years of growth 08:30 Top Russian Miners 09:11 Mining "ban" is complicated 13:30 Who owns these miners? 17:31 Sanctions & War 23:23 Grey ASIC market 26:36 Wrap up - 👋Bitcoin Season 2 is produced Blockspace Media, Bitcoin’s first B2B publication in Bitcoin. Follow us on Twitter and check out our newsletter for the best information in Bitcoin mining, Ordinals and tech! Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Russia just leapfrogged China to be on the second largest country mining Bitcoin, second only
0:07.3	to the United States, and ahead of China. We are getting into the murky world of Bitcoin
0:12.8	mining in the dark horse of Bitcoin, Russia.
0:24.4	Welcome back to Bitcoin Season 2.
0:29.5	We have the author of a report on Russia Bitcoin mining.
0:31.7	Anna, welcome to the show.
0:32.2	Thanks for coming.
0:33.2	Hi, guys.
0:34.6	Thank you for having me.
0:36.3	Yeah, thanks for joining Anna.
0:40.1	Seasoned crypto reporter, longtime CoinDest journalists, been around the block, reported on a lot of different topics.
0:44.0	And we had to tap you for this report.
0:46.3	Native Russian, she was perfect for sourcing information for this.
0:51.2	And we're really excited to release this.
0:53.9	When this pod goes out, that is on Wednesday
0:56.6	of this week, the report will already be out. So if you all want to follow along, if you're on audio,
1:00.9	head to blockspace.com media. You can download the report on our website. Or if you're on video
1:06.1	on YouTube or Spotify, you can also follow along here because we'll be tracking the report as we go through
1:12.5	this. So, Anna, to set the stage, can you give us a high-level overview of Russia's Bitcoin
1:19.1	mining industry? Because I think, as for our conversation before we started recording and some of
1:24.1	Charlie's notes, this is a very opaque sector of the Bitcoin mining industry.
1:29.5	Most people in the West have no idea what's going on in Russia,
	...

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