Putin ‘Supports’ Plan to Legalize and Regulate Bitcoin & Crypto Mining – Report

cryptonews.com:

Russia could accelerate its path to becoming one of the world’s biggest Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto miners – with reports that President Vladimir Putin has backed a measure that may see the industry legalized and brought under government regulation.

Bloomberg reported that the move could be “good news” for the crypto mining industry, and claimed that “three people familiar with the matter” who had asked “not to be identified because the information is not public” had confirmed Putin’s stance. They said the President had “backed” a “Russian government proposal to tax and regulate” mining, and had “rejected the Central Bank’s proposal to ban it completely.”

However, the plan proposes a number of limiting measures that the industry may not welcome: The sources stated that the plan would “restrict mining to regions with a surplus of electricity,” including Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Karelia. All three regions already have a large number of crypto miners, due to their favorably cold weather conditions and power surpluses.

The report noted that the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had “declined to say what Putin’s stance was,” but added that the President had “ordered the government and Central Bank to work out their differences,” echoing Putin’s own sentiments from earlier this week.

Yesterday, Cryptonews.com reported that Putin had made note of Russia’s “certain competitive advantages” in crypto, “especially in the field of [crypto] mining.”

He specifically pointed out that the nation has an electricity surplus, as well as “well-trained personnel” versed in crypto.

Per University of Cambridge-compiled data, at the end of August last year, Russia was the world’s third-largest bitcoin (BTC) mining nation, behind only the USA and