According to a report published by E Daily, the Abkhazian government revealed that it’s due to present a proposal to fine crypto miners and file criminal charges against them. The plan is to set fines up to $8,000, which is a considerable amount of money, as it is the same yearly average income per individual in the de facto South Caucasus state, which is equal to 20 minimum national wages.

The government plans to fine crypto mining firms. 

The Abkhazian government seeks to hit back with even more significant penalties against public servants who are caught in crypto mining activities, as well as companies running rigs, with up to 5,000 minimum national wages. The report notes, “for repeated committing of an administrative offense shall entail the imposition of an administrative fine on individual entrepreneurs, legal entities and citizens in the amount of 50 minimum wages for each kilowatt of power of the equipment connected to power grids for carrying out activities for the extraction of cryptocurrencies, with the confiscation of said equipment, on officials – in the amount of 5,000 minimum wages.”

Abkhazia extends its temporary crypto mining ban. 

The government also published a decree extending its “temporary ban” on crypto mining until at least March 31, 2022. In October 2020, Abkhazia had lifted its two-year ban on cryptocurrency mining only to extend it now. The crypto mining ban had come into effect in December 2018 after a surge in mining activity left the region facing an energy crisis. But the latest news supposed a turnaround in the last year’s ban lifting. Later last year, a power substation’s burnout provoked a massive blackout across the de facto South Caucasus state. The situation was blamed on the refusal of crypto miners to slow down their operations in the state.