Sales of Bitcoin Mining Rigs in Russia Surge in Q4: Report

A new report by Kommersant revealed that sales of Bitcoin mining machines in the country surged rapidly in the fourth quarter, a trend backed by a resurgence of demand, despite the chaotic price action of the crypto-asset.

The substantial increase was also spurred by cheap equipment and electricity prices.

• Chilkoot, which happens to be one of the official distributors of crypto mining rigs in Russia, witnessed more sales during the first two months of Q4 compared to the entire Q3.
• During the first nine months alone, the company’s sales were recorded to be 65% higher than last year.
• As per Chilkoot’s data, mining prices fell by almost 20% during August and October. The prices, however, remained the same over the past month.
• The mining hardware reseller also noticed that their equipment purchases in one transaction increased by 30% compared to the beginning of the year.
• BitRiver financial analyst Vladislav Antonov believes the price of ASIC mining rigs being close to the cost of production provides a good entry point for investment.
• Despite a fairly confident start, Bitcoin’s price is currently hovering near two-year lows with a minor drop in hash rate figures which remained around 240 million Th/s.
• But Russian revenues from the minting of the crypto-asset saw a multifold increase in recent times.
• This was also observed by Didar Bekbauov, the Co-founder of Xive, who said,

“Hashrate growth came from Russia. Cheap electricity for households and business in some regions, cheap ASIC prices, sanctions, less investments opportunities, high tech qualification of people made bitcoin mining very attractive industry in Russia.”

• The latest development comes a few months after the Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (MiFin) reached an agreement to allow crypto mining in energy-rich regions and prohibit it in the energy-scarce ones.
• More recently, the bill legalizing crypto mining activities and the sale of mined crypto assets was introduced in Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament.