A psychiatric clinic at one of Russia’s oldest prisons, Butyrka, was secretly transformed into a cryptocurrency mining farm, law enforcement officers have discovered. A deputy warden has been accused of stealing electricity to mine cryptocurrencies with the help of unidentified accomplices. Russia’s Oldest Prison Turned Into a Crypto Mining Farm According to a report from local media, the facility discovered in Moscow’s Prisión de Butyrka, built in 1771, housed cryptocurrency minting hardware which consumed around 8,400 kW of electricity, which cost the government more than $1000. The authorities found that the facility has been working inside the prison since November 2021 up to February 2022, drawing power paid for by the government. The investigating team found that the deputy warden accused of stealing electricity to mine cryptocurrencies may have committed “actions that clearly go beyond his powers, thereby significantly violating the legally protected interests of society or the state.” Russian condemn illegal crypto miners because of the recurring blackouts in their area. Contribution in Global Mining Industry Russia accounted for about 11% of the global processing power used for minting new cryptocurrency, based on a report from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance in August 2021. The Russian Central Bank earlier this year pushed for a ban on cryptocurrency mining in the country. However, President Vladimir Put...
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