Crypto Mining Equipment Seized at Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant
- Several power plant workers were arrested after their crypto mining equipment was discovered by law enforcement agencies at the Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant.
- Six Radeon RX 470 GPU video cards, a motherboard, cooling units, hard drive, and other electronics were confiscated.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has arrested workers after discovering cryptocurrency mining equipment at the Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant facility, Ukrainian news site UNIAN reported on August 21.
According to the report, the SBU detectives obtained a search warrant and conducted an investigation on July 10. The law-enforcement agency then discovered and confiscated six Radeon RX 470 GPU video cards, a motherboard, cooling units, a hard drive and other electronics in an office located in the administrative wing of the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant.
The report further states that the illegal crypto mining operation compromised the nuclear facility’s security through its internet connection and ended up releasing classified information regarding the plant’s physical protection system. Outside computer equipment has been forbidden from entering the facility as it is registered as a state secret.
An additional search of the facility uncovered more mining equipment, this time on the premises of the National Guard of Ukraine branch located at the power plant. The second search resulted in the seizure of 16 graphics cards, 7 hard drives, 2 solid-state drives and a router.
Last year, several engineers at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center were arrested for trying to mine Bitcoin (BTC), using one of the country’s supercomputers. The computer, which has the ability to perform 1,000 trillion calculations per second, was kept offline for security reasons. Once the engineers tried to bring it online to use for mining, the security department was quick to react.
- In order to thank the crypto community for its support, the Ukrainian government is planning to conduct an “airdrop” to donors that have contributed crypto.
- Although the Ukrainian government accepts donations only in ETH, BTC, USDT, and DOT, Uniswap has launched an interface that converts ERC-20 tokens into ETH before sending them to Ukraine.
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- Binance and Kraken have both said they will not freeze the accounts of “innocent users”, unless there is a “legal requirement” to do so.
- Many crypto-related platforms have started actively working to support Ukraine, and will either make donations or provide emergency relief through crypto crowdfunding.
- Celsius will invested in equipment and positions in three large North American Bitcoin mining companies.
- The $200 million investment will make it the largest investors in the Bitcoin mining industry in the U.S.