Russian tax authorities have revealed the number of cryptocurrency miners that regularly report to the government the digital coins they produce.
The figures released include both mining companies, which are required to register with the state, and individuals who perform minting at a non-professional level.
Miners legalize business in Russia. Many others avoid registration
More than 5,500 crypto miners have exited the shadow economy since Russia legalized the activity more than a year ago, according to the Federal Tax Service (FNS) in Moscow.
This includes 1,500 companies and sole traders, as well as 4,000 citizens, who have already declared their acquired assets to the Revenue Department as required by law.
The tax collection agency noted that under current rules, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs are free to engage in mining once they are registered in the register.
To achieve this, they will need to fill out and submit an electronic application through a dedicated page, a press release on Friday explained.
Individuals who use less than 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month to mine digital currencies are not required to register.
However, both categories are required to report minted cryptocurrencies monthly through their personal FNS accounts.
Authorities have drawn attention to a special section on the website where miners and operators of mining infrastructure can find detailed information about the entire process, including how to report the cryptocurrencies mined and how to pay taxes.
Russia has not yet comprehensively regulated all crypto transactions
Two laws were adopted in August and October 2024, respectively, and came into force later that year, making mining the first legalized cryptocurrency activity in Russia.
Many other activities using decentralized digital money, such as investing and trading, are still unregulated, and Moscow authorities intend to do so this year.
At the end of December 2025, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) announced a new regulatory concept aimed at introducing rules for investing and trading cryptocurrencies.
The framework needs to be approved by July 1, and the legal status of Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. also needs to be determined.
As previously reported by Cryptopolitan, the authorities’ plan is to recognize both virtual currencies and stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies as “monetary assets.”
Current Russian law distinguishes between “digital financial assets” (DFA), such as tokenized real-world assets circulated on private blockchains by government-approved issuers, and regular cryptocurrencies.
Until now, the latter has been treated primarily as property in an increasing number of court cases. The Russian parliament has just finalized the adoption of an amendment to the country’s Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code that confirms that definition.
The bill regulating the seizure of digital assets as part of criminal proceedings was first passed by the State Duma, approved by the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) and signed by President Vladimir Putin this week.
Less than a third of Russian miners registered with the FNS
Estimates released last year showed that up to two-thirds of active mining operations still operate in secret. To increase registration numbers, some officials have proposed amnesties.
Russian miners are also required to inform the Federal Tax Service of the type, quantity and specifications of the coin minting equipment they use.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice has proposed harsh penalties, including high fines and prison terms, for miners who do not register with the FNS.
Eliminating power theft by illegal miners is another major challenge for federal and local governments. Despite increased enforcement, the number of identified but unregistered mining facilities has soared to nearly 197,000 over the past year.
Power shortages have been blamed on both legal and illegal mining sites, and regulators have imposed year-round bans in about a dozen regions of Russia, from Siberia and the Far East to the North Caucasus and occupied eastern Ukraine.
