Armenia witnessed the opening ceremony of a new mining farm claiming to be one of the “world’s largest.”The event was attended by the Armenian Prime Minister and other top officials. The reported mining farm is the outcome of a joint venture by the well-known Armenian conglomerate Multi Group, established by oligarch and politician Gagik Tsarukyan, and Omnia Tech, a controversial international mining firm.
Tsarukyan started Tsarukyan Alliance, which is the second largest parliamentary alliance in the Armenian Parliament, having won over 27% of the vote in the elections held last year. He is also supposedly a “key” business associate of ex- Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.
News Armenia has pointed out that Multi Group employs a total of over 25,000 people under its various subsidiaries.
In addition to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Tsarukyan, numerous international businessmen attended the event. Tsarukyan pointed out that the event has drawn guests “from almost forty countries.” He further cited News Armenia as saying that
“This is an important step towards the development of the information technology sector, especially since representatives of foreign business circles are planning to meet with government members to find out the possibilities of new and more ambitious investments in the Armenian economy and expanding the base of cooperation.”
The media outlet also reports that nearly $50 million has been poured in the setting up of the mining farm, which is reported to have 3,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) mining machines. There is also a plan to extend capacity to 120,000 in future.
News Armenia further states that “Omnia is the owner of equipment used in farms” belonging to prominent cloud mining firm Genesis Mining. It continues to allege that “Omnia provides Genesis with mining equipment and finances its servicing.”
The final point is very much disputable given that in 2017, Omnia was charged of misappropriating the Genesis brand name and misleadingly claiming to have an alliance with the high-profile firm. Genesis has continually negated this statement, clarifying that Omnia had only bought hash power from the company and was a client, but without any authorized joint venture or significant business ties.
In May 2018, Omnia was additionally accused of running a pyramid program by security researcher Chris Kubecka, who previously brought to light the company’s bogus claims of having a legal alliance with Genesis. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that all nations in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), including Armenia, ought to be part of a cohesive crypto-regulatory strategy, given the “strong” and “close” trade and industry ties connecting the bloc’s members.
