Russia Legalizes Crypto Mining, U.S. Adds Bitcoin to Reserves, Thailand Approves Stablecoins

In August 2024, Russia officially legalized crypto mining, marking a significant shift in the global landscape of digital assets. This move was followed by the United States adding Bitcoin and several altcoins to its national reserves by early 2025. Concurrently, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved USDT and USDC for cryptocurrency trading, allowing these stablecoins to be listed on regulated exchanges across the country. These developments signal the beginning of a new geopolitical battle over cryptocurrency, one that could reshape the global economic balance for decades to come.

Kiryu Artemev, Head of Legal at BeMine, a leading global mining provider, explains that mining has evolved beyond simply generating digital assets. Today, it is a strategic industry that allows countries to strengthen their economic independence. Russia, the U.S., and Thailand are proving that cryptocurrencies can no longer be ignored as part of the global economy.

Russia’s legalization of mining opened up new opportunities for entrepreneurs, but the long-term conditions for miners remain complex. Miners are officially required to sell their earnings through state-approved platforms, which currently do not exist. This forces many miners to route transactions through neighboring countries like Uzbekistan and Belarus, where the infrastructure is already in place. Inside Russia, miners rely on screenshots from exchanges and declarations of wallet addresses to fulfill reporting requirements, a system that offers little clarity in practice and puts Russian miners at a disadvantage globally.

The U.S. government’s decision to include Bitcoin in national reserves was a groundbreaking moment, marking the first time a cryptocurrency has been officially recognized as a strategic asset at the state level. However, this move may be seen as a step toward wider acceptance or a move to tighten control over the market. The U.S. has already established itself as a dominant force in the mining landscape, with access to cheap credit and early regulatory support in certain states helping the country take the global lead in hashrate. Many of the largest mining pools remain under Chinese ownership, keeping China influential behind the scenes. The real strategic competition is unfolding between the U.S. and China, with USDT, originally tied to Chinese capital, continuing to outpace USDC.

As regulations shift, mining is no longer just a tech-driven industry; it has become a crucial part of national economic strategies. Whether it remains a tool of financial freedom or turns into an instrument of government control depends on the rules set in the coming years. Cryptocurrency is at the threshold of a new phase, and if governments continue to compete for control, it could reshape the very nature of mining and digital assets. It’s crucial that market participants retain their autonomy.

The geopolitical role of cryptocurrencies is no longer theoretical; it’s unfolding in real time, with mining at the center of this shift. As nations redraw the digital borders of finance, questions of access, control, and autonomy come into sharper focus. What began as a technical hobby has grown into a force with geopolitical weight. For infrastructure providers like BeMine, these shifts are more than policy headlines; they define the operational realities of modern mining. As the world’s economic architecture evolves, the future of decentralization will depend not only on technology but on how global systems choose to engage with it. In that uncertainty lies both risk and possibility, and the next chapter is only beginning.