A group of mining companies BitRiver fell under US sanctions

US Treasury imposed sanctions against the BitRiver group of companies engaged in cryptocurrency mining in the Russian Federation.

According to the agency, BitRiver, an operator of mining data centers founded in 2017, currently has three offices in Russia. In 2021, BitRiver transferred ownership of its assets to the Swiss holding BitRiver AG.

In addition to it, ten subsidiaries were included in the sanctions list, including Bitriver Management Company LLC, Bitriver Rus LLC, Everest Group LLC, Siberian Minerals LLC, Tuvaasbest LLC, Trading House Asbest LLC, LLC “Bitriver-B”, LLC “Bitriver-K”, LLC “Bitriver-Sever”, LLC “Bitriver-Turma”.

Thus, the US Treasury stopped the possibility of a potential circumvention of sanctions by Russia through mining. This is the first time that companies mining cryptocurrencies have been included in the sanctions list.

Also under sanctions OFAC turned out to be a Russian entrepreneur, the owner of the Tsargrad group of companies, Konstantin Malofeev, whom the media had previously associated with stealing bitcoins from the WEX exchange.

The agency has blocked any property of BitRiver and Malofeev’s companies within US borders. Residents and citizens of the country are prohibited from working with them.

Recall that in early April, under US sanctions fell Hydra darknet marketplace and Garantex cryptocurrency exchange.