Russia has become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency mining country this year according to Kommersant business daily citing Bitriver, Russia’s largest bitcoin mining provider. 

Russia climbed to second place in the world in terms of the total power capacity of the facilities devoted to the production of digital currencies. According to Bitriver’s data, the amount of power involved in coin minting has reached 1 gigawatt (GW) in the first three months of the year.

The United States remains the clear leader with 3 to 4 GW of mining capacity, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported. 

The top 10 also includes Gulf countries (700 MW), Canada (400 MW), Malaysia (300 MW), Argentina (135 MW), Iceland (120 MW), Paraguay (100–125 MW), Kazakhstan (100 MW), and Ireland (90 MW), according to Kommersant business daily.

Bitriver also noted that the positive trend for Russia is linked to last year’s reduction of mining activities in Kazakhstan, where authorities have been shutting down authorized mining data centers and going after illegal crypto farms due to electricity shortages. 

The Central Asian nation’s growing power deficit has been blamed on the influx of miners following China’s crackdown on the industry. A law limiting their access to low-cost, subsidized electricity entered into force in February.

The U.S. also leads in terms of share of the global hash rate. However, the growth of the American market is being slowed down by rising electricity rates, reduced mining profitability, and the abolition of tax incentives in some areas.

Bitriver CEO, Igor Runets commented, “In addition, the vast majority of the equipment was purchased by American miners on credit, so many over-leveraged companies are in the process of bankruptcy or have already gone bankrupt.”

According to Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of Encry Foundation, which represents IT companies providing services in the field of blockchain and tech innovations, the actions of U.S. regulators are also drawing the attention of market participants. 

He also believes they can provoke another major redistribution in the mining market.

Data provided by the Head of the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (Racib), Alexander Brazhnikov, also suggests that the energy capacity of Russia’s crypto mining sector may be even higher. 

According to him, the Russians use about 800,000 ASIC miners, the combined power rating of which exceeds 2.5 GW.