A Japanese securities and banking giant SBI Holdings terminated its mining operations in Russia and cut ties with the sanctioned Russian bitcoin miner BitRiver. The decision was prompted by the direct effect of sanctions on SBI Crypto, whose parent company is SBI Holdings.
SBI Crypto was hosting its mining machines at BitRiver on sites across Siberia, which has been blacklisted by U.S. authorities, as per people familiar with the matter.
However, SBI Holdings has been planning to shut down crypto mining operations in Russia for quite some time, considering instability in the country due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
SBI Holdings has previously kept the connection to BitRiver private. As per sources, it has ended its private relationship with BitRiver which was sanctioned by the US govt in April this year. Previously, BitRiver refrained from confirming or denying that SBI Holdings was its client.