Abkhazia Police confiscate 396 crypto mining rigs in 2 days due to electricity shortage

In just forty-eight hours, law enforcement in Abkhazia was able to seize 396 cryptocurrency mining equipment. This comes as the de facto state continues its fight against unlicensed miners. The government has laid the responsibility for catastrophic power shortages and rolling blackouts on unlicensed miners, which has resulted in thousands of people not having access to electricity.

There is debate on the state’s political standing. There are a number of countries that view it as being an integral part of Georgia; nevertheless, there are other countries, notably Russia, that view it as being an independent nation.

Cryptocurrency miners have found a safe refuge in this region due to its favorable weather and relatively inexpensive power. But in recent years, it is believed that a significant number of miners have built illicit connections to the grid, which has enabled them to power their hardware without incurring any costs. Because of this, the grid has become unstable, which has resulted in power outages that can continue for up to five hours at a time.

Even extra electricity supplies from Russia across the border have not helped the situation; this is because newly installed overhead wires have rapidly become “overloaded.”

A crackdown on cryptocurrency miners has been implemented in response by the authorities. And as reported by EA Daily, this has resulted in fruit being produced in recent days. According to the information provided by the media source, the Abkhazian State Security Service conducted a number of searches on February 5 and 6, respectively.

Three separate operations in Abkhazia led to the seizure of 396 cryptocurrency mining rigs.

Sukhumi’s Palace of Culture was the target of the initial raid in the city. This dilapidated structure, which dated back to the Soviet era and was formerly used as the MVO Military Sanatorium, is now the location of a series of abandoned buildings, one of which had been converted into a cryptocurrency mining farm. Twenty-five rigs were taken into custody from this location by law enforcement.

Officers in the Gudauta region conducted simultaneous searches of a facility making concrete and a parking lot used for the sale of automobiles. During these searches, they discovered a total of fifty devices that were illegally linked to the grid.

In addition, on February 6, agents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs joined forces with officers from the Ochamchira region to conduct a more extensive operation. The authorities carried out a search warrant in the community of Achguara and found 115 contraband items in a “private dwelling.”

The police reported that the rigs had used an amount of public grid electricity equal to 250 kWh worth of use.

396 crypto mining rigs Abkhazia Police electricity shortage Police Seize 396 Crypto