Social media groups devoted to cryptocurrencies in Russia have been attacked by bots in what looks like a campaign against bitcoin and the like. Their comments on Russia’s largest social media platform are triggered by certain keywords like crypto and blockchain, members of the community have noticed.

A 100-megawatt data processing center dedicated to the minting of digital coins will open this year in Buryatia, a Russian republic in south-central Siberia, the Russian Far East and the Arctic Development Corporation (KRDV) announced.

The crypto mining industry has faced moratoriums in some parts of the U.S. and Canada in recent months. Now, Russia provides tax incentives for those who want to invest in crypto mining. The new $12 million crypto mining center will open in East Siberia with the direct support of the government.

Russian authorities have reportedly arrested the second co-founder of seized cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato. The man, who recently promised to restore the platform’s operations from Russia, was detained at the request of Interpol and may face extradition to France.

Gazprombank, a subsidiary of the leading Russian government-owned gas company, Gazprom, publicly proposed giving banks more time before implementing the digital ruble. The country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) project has been accelerating due to global financial sanctions amid geopolitical tensions. 

The capacity of Russian mining farms has exceeded 500 megawatts (MW) at the end 2022, according to results from a poll among established industry players published by the business daily Kommersant. The beginning of 2023 sets them up for continued growth, on the backdrop of a crypto market recovery, but the expansion could potentially be limited by electricity tariffs and taxes for miners, executives said.

Russia’s largest lender Sberbank is working on a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform to launch in May on Ethereum. According to a report shared with the local news agency, Interfax, the system is currently running a closed beta that will turn into open testing in March.

Russia's largest bank Sberbank will release a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform by May this year, according to a report by Russian news agency Interfax.

Russian banks may be the main losers from the introduction of a digital ruble while retailers will save on acquiring fees, analysts have predicted. The benefits for consumers using the new digital currency are not that obvious as they may not be paid any interest or cashback.

The U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions watchdog, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has blacklisted a bitcoin and an ether address it has linked to sanctions evasion.