The US Treasury has made a strike against Russian cryptocurrency mining company for the first time as the tragic events in Ukraine unfold. The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) listed Russian crypto mining firm BitRiver as well as 10 subsidiaries on its sanction list.
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Founded in 2017, BitRiver currently operates out of three offices across Russia. In 2021, the company shifted legal ownership of its assets to a Switzerland-based holding company. OFAC says it has designated BitRiver AG to its sanctions list for "operating or having operated in the technology sector of the Russian Federation economy."
The move comes after the IMF warned that sanctioned countries could use crypto mining to evade restrictions as the current size of the market isn't big enough for countries like Russia to just transfer its wealth into cryptocurrencies. The international body says mining for energy-intensive blockchains like Bitcoin can allow countries to "monetize energy resources, some of which cannot be exported due to sanctions."
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