Igor Runets, the Stanford-educated pioneer who built Russia’s largest Bitcoin mining operation, is crumbling under the weight of criminal charges and corporate insolvency.
Once a dominant force controlling over half of the nation's industrial mining, BitRiver is now paralyzed by a high-stakes legal battle that has seen its founder confined to house arrest and its parent company placed under formal bankruptcy supervision.
The collapse accelerated on 27 January 2026, when the Sverdlovsk Regional Arbitration Court initiated bankruptcy "observation" proceedings against Fox Group, the holding entity that owns 98% of BitRiver's management arm.
This move was triggered by a debt claim from Infrastructure of Siberia, a subsidiary of the En+ Group, seeking a refund of more than 700 million rubles (~ $9.2 million).
The dispute centers on an advance payment for mining equipment that En+ alleges was never delivered despite the significant transfer of funds.
While the court upheld the claim in April 2025, enforcement officers found no assets at Fox Group to cover the debt, leading to the current insolvency monitoring.
The financial strain is compounded by frozen bank accounts and separate lawsuits from power suppliers, including claims of 133 million rubles (~$1.74 million) from En+ Sbyt and 640 million (~$8.3 million) rubles from the Irkutsk Electric Grid Company for unpaid electricity bills.
As his company unravels, Igor Runets faces personal legal jeopardy.
Detained on 30 January 2026, Runets was formally charged the following day with three counts of concealing assets to avoid paying taxes, fees, and insurance contributions.
The Zamoskvoretsky District Court has ordered him to remain under house arrest until at least 4 February 2026, a fall from grace for a man whose net worth was estimated at $230 million just over a year ago.
Runets has publicly pushed back against the fraud allegations related to the equipment deal.
According to reports, he maintains that the hardware was indeed delivered and is appealing the bankruptcy-related rulings.
Runets stated,
“Today they are operating normally, but the shutdowns in December caused significant losses to several group companies, including ‘BitRiver Rus’ and ‘Stroyservice Plus,’ which we also plan to recover from En+ through legal proceedings,”
The internal state of the company suggests a business in terminal decline.
By the start of 2026, approximately 80% of BitRiver’s executive team had resigned.
Operational hubs have also been shuttered; facilities in the Irkutsk region are offline due to local mining bans, and a massive 100 MW data center in Buryatia was never commissioned as the region prepares for a year-round mining prohibition.
Even smaller sites have not escaped the crackdown.
In February 2025, law enforcement closed a 40 MW facility in Ingushetia for violating active bans.
Furthermore, major commercial ties have frayed, including the termination of a strategic partnership with Gazprom Neft.
BitRiver's Operational Profile At Its Peak
With the U.S. Treasury sanctions of 2022 having already chased away international partners like Japan’s SBI Holdings, BitRiver’s current domestic crisis leaves the firm with few avenues for recovery.
As ownership transfer talks reportedly begin, the future of Russia's former crypto kingpin remains a matter for the courts and liquidators.
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