It is well known that SBI Holdings, Japan’s largest online brokerage firm, is one of Ripple’s key partners. The company is reportedly closing its cryptocurrency mining operations in Russia. Chief Financial Officer Hideyuki Katsuji, in particular, announced plans to sell the machine and exit the country earlier this week.
An SBI spokesperson said in an interview with Bloomberg News:
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has clouded the prospects for mining operations in Siberia, and the global cryptocurrency market crash has made token mining less profitable.
Current state of cryptocurrency mining in Russia
Last year, authorities cracked down on bitcoin mining in China. As a result, miners began flocking from the hubs to different countries, and Russia became one such destination. In fact, low-cost electricity from natural gas and hydroelectric dams has made the country even more attractive to miners.
Last August, Russia accounted for about 11% of the world’s processing power used to mint new units of bitcoin, making it the third-largest miner after Kazakhstan, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. became a hub.
In fact, according to the latest figures, power consumption by Russian cryptocurrency miners has surged 20-fold in five years. Experts say the country has the capacity to meet a much greater demand.
However, sanctions imposed on Russia by other countries, including the United States, have destabilized the situation. Compass Mining, for example, tried to liquidate his $30 million in hardware in Siberia in April to evade sanctions.
An SBI spokesperson said the company stopped mining in Siberia shortly after the war began. As a result, the move has impacted the financial situation of Ripple’s key partners. The company’s cryptocurrency business reportedly posted a pre-tax loss of about $72 million in the second quarter of this year.
The spokesperson also told Bloomberg:
SBI has not yet decided when it will complete its withdrawal from Siberia. The company has no other cryptocurrency business in Russia and he plans to continue operating SBI Bank LLC, a commercial banking arm based in Moscow.
How did the miners live?
Bitcoin miners have dumped HODLing over the past few months. Cumulatively, public miners gave away over 6,200 coins last month, accounting for 158% of his July bitcoin output. As a result, July marked the third month in a row that miners sold more than 100% of his Bitcoin production.
As a recent article pointed out, selling more than was produced on its own shows the fact that miners are now under pressure. And with Friday’s market crash, it looks like their condition could get worse going forward.
Read more: Bitcoin miners only sold these many coins in July: Is there a difference?
