Russia’s Top Crypto Miner Owner Arrested on Tax Evasion Charges

Igor Runets, the founder of Russia’s biggest crypto mining firm BitRiver, has been put under house arrest on tax evasion charges, according to documents published on the Moscow court website.

Runets, 39, is among the pioneers of Russia’s crypto mining industry. He founded BitRiver in 2017 and later expanded it to 15 data centers with 533 megawatts of capacity and more than 175,000 servers. The US sanctioned the company in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Igor Runets, in a photo released by Russian state media in June 2024.

Photographer: Kirill Zykov/Sputnik/AP Photo

BitRiver was seen as a potential beneficiary of Russia’s 2024 liberalization of the crypto market, as the country increasingly relied on digital currencies ...