Tajikistan’s parliament has passed amendments to the Criminal Code that impose significant penalties on cryptocurrency miners who use unauthorized or stolen electricity to power mining operations.
The revisions, adopted on December 3, introduce Article 253(2), which makes it a criminal offense to mine cryptocurrencies with stolen power. Violators now face fines ranging from $1,650 to $8,250 or prison sentences from two to eight years, depending on the scale of the offense.
For particularly large-scale illicit use of electricity, penalties escalate to five to eight years’ imprisonment, a move lawmakers say is necessary to address not just economic loss but also regional power outages attributed to illegal mining activity. Prosecutors have linked electricity theft by illicit mining operations to disruptions in local grids.
Attorney General Khabibullo Vokhidzoda stated that unauthorized crypto mining has contributed to material damage and destabilization of power supply in multiple cities, prompting the legislative response.
The new law aligns Tajikistan with a growing global focus on regulating the environmental and infrastructural impacts of cryptocurrency mining — particularly where mining systems strain local energy resources.
