Russian authorities swooped in on Igor Runets, the 39-year-old founder of BitRiver, placing him under house arrest Saturday on three charges of tax evasion. The crypto mining mogul now faces allegations of a staggering 30 billion ruble evasion scandal. Talk about a bad weekend.
This arrest comes as Runets was already on a collision course with Oleg Deripaska’s company over mounting debts.
Founded in 2017, BitRiver quickly became Russia’s largest Bitcoin mining operator. The company smartly leveraged Siberia’s abundant hydroelectric power and naturally cold climate—perfect for keeping those overheating mining rigs cool without spending a fortune on air conditioning.
At one point, they controlled over 50% of the Russian mining market. Not too shabby.
The company expanded aggressively, building 15 data centers across Siberia and running more than 175,000 servers. BitRiver held a significant chunk of global Bitcoin hash power.
In 2021, they shifted assets to a Swiss holding company—a move that now looks suspiciously timed.
BitRiver’s financial performance seemed impressive on paper. They claimed a combined $200 million revenue with Intelion for fiscal year 2024 and branded themselves as the world’s largest green crypto mining datacenter provider. This case highlights the importance of proper compliance risks when operating cryptocurrency businesses across international jurisdictions.
But trouble was brewing.
The U.S. Treasury added BitRiver to its sanctions list in 2022—the first virtual currency mining company to earn that dubious distinction. This sanction specifically noted that BitRiver was supporting the war through its continued operations in Russia. Japan’s SBI pulled its investment the following year. Equipment fraud lawsuits followed in 2025.
Recent times have been brutal. Unpaid wages. Shuttered operations in Irkutsk and Buryatia. Debt disputes with En+ Group’s Siberian Infrastructure. Lawsuits from power companies demanding payment for electricity.
The company was placed under bankruptcy observation on February 2, 2026, with their main creditor demanding over $9.2 million. Their mounting operational challenges included inability to pay electricity bills, causing shutdowns across multiple data centers.
Now with Runets under house arrest, BitRiver’s future looks about as stable as last year’s crypto prices. Not great.
