Russia has banned crypto mining in ten key regions of the country until 2031, citing its high energy consumption, according to Russian news sources.

Dagestan, North Ossetia, and Chechnya are among the regions impacted by the new ban, which will start January 1, 2025 and stay in effect for the next six years.

The ban will end on March 2031, and primarily disrupt mining pools and independent miners.

In November, new crypto legislation went into effect in Russia requiring miners to register with the finance ministry.

Earlier this year, regions like Dagestan were the site of rolling electricity blackouts, partly due to crypto mining, which consumes a significant amount of energy. This year alone, bitcoin mining used roughly 17% of the country's energy, according to one estimate. While Russia has moved to levy restrictions on the industry, it has spurred some miners to move underground.

“The owners of illegal cryptocurrency mining installations are coming up with new methods of 'circumventing' the law - they install mining farms underground," Abdulmuslim Abdulmuslimov, Dagestan’s prime minister, told Reuters.

In the past, Russia prohibited cryptocurrency as a payment method but still allowed it for cross-border payments. As the war in Ukraine escalates, Russia's alleged use of crypto to evade sanctions has gained renewed prominence, prompting the U.S. to increasingly target crypto transactions originating from Russia.

This past July, Russia unveiled a new law greenlighting the use of crypto for international trade. The legislation allows the country's central bank to establish "experimental" infrastructure for crypto transactions. "We are taking a historic decision in the financial sphere," said the head of the Russian parliament's finance committee Anatoly Aksakov about the move.