PANews reports on April 1st that according to Cryptonews citing the Russian Kommersant newspaper, the Irkutsk region, Russia's largest Bitcoin mining hotspot, may ban all cryptocurrency mining activities throughout the year starting from April 1st. The ban will only apply to the southern part of the Siberian Irkutsk region but may continue until mid-2031.

The Kommersant newspaper, which has good relations with the Kremlin, said its sources revealed that the Russian government "may comprehensively ban mining activities in the southern Irkutsk region as early as April 1st". As Russia's first Bitcoin mining center, the southern Irkutsk region has multiple large mining centers that collectively consume about 650 megawatts of electricity. Industry insiders told the newspaper that a comprehensive ban would cause significant problems for these centers. They added that "if the ban is implemented," they would be powerless to act, "because it would be difficult to connect to networks in other regions". Many neighboring areas have also implemented winter cryptocurrency mining bans, which may leave miners with no choice but to relocate.