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Sales of graphics cards in Russia are increasing due to the increase in remote work and the apparent growth of cryptocurrency mining, a new report says.
According to several local retailers such as Citilink and Svyaznoy, the sales of graphics cards related to cryptocurrency mining in Russia increased significantly in August 2020, Kommersant reported on Sept. 14.
Alexey Rusakov, an executive at local technology distributor Citilink, told Kommersant that sales of mining-enabled graphics cards increased 49% in August. This is in line with a double increase in sales by tech giant Nvidia on an annual basis, according to Irina Shekhovtsova, director of communications for Russia and CIS at Nvidia.
According to Kommersant, sales of PC components skyrocketed in the period from June to August 2020, up 470% over the same period last year.
The alleged surge of interest in cryptocurrency mining in Russia is accompanied by a significant level of regulatory uncertainty around the mining sector. Russia’s leading cryptocurrency law, “On Digital Financial Assets”, or DFA, passed in July 2020, does not mention the term “mining” at all.
Although the DFA law is referred to as a “glossary for cryptocurrencies,” there is another bill that is likely to affect the mining sector. Known as the “digital currency” law, the legislation is poised to provide a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry in Russia and is expected to be passed in December 2020.
In early September 2020, the Russian Finance Ministry allegedly proposed to amend the DFA law to ban miners from receiving cryptocurrency payments for their activities. “Standalone cryptocurrency mining is legal, but it loses its financial value because the payment is usually processed in Bitcoin and Ethers,” the authority said.
