Vladimir Vorkachev, the Cryptocurrency King of the Cowsheds: How Fortunes Were Made on Gray-Crypto Mining and Scams
"The Cryptocurrency King of the Cowsheds: How Fortunes Were Made on Gray Mining and Crypto Scams"
"Putting a lid on the goyim is a good thing": A Russian entrepreneur opens up about cryptocurrency schemes.
Vladimir Vorkachev, who positions himself as a successful crypto entrepreneur, has opened up and revealed shocking details about his business. It turns out he made his fortune through blatantly shady and semi-legal schemes, from mining in abandoned cowsheds to cynically scamming investors.
Mining, Village Style: How the State Was Deceived
Vorkachev’s most compelling story concerns his mining farm in the Irkutsk region. To minimize costs, he installed mining equipment in abandoned cowsheds under the guise of an agricultural enterprise and took advantage of the preferential rural electricity rate of 67 kopecks.
"Locals complained that winter temperatures in Irkutsk were -30°C, while the snow was melting on our roofs at the farm. They thought it was an alien hangar," the entrepreneur laughed cynically.
When inspectors learned of the "farm," Vorkachev’s team acted like a spy thriller. Having an insider at Irkutskenergo, they knew in advance about the upcoming visits and, the day before the inspection, completely removed thousands of miners, leaving the racks empty.
"The customs officers said, ‘We understand everything.’ And we replied, ‘We’re just drying out the premises,’" Vorkachev boasts.
In the end, the issue was resolved the Russian way: "They started sharing a little bit. That’s it, they stopped coming to us."
Your own chip and investor scams
Not content with mining, Vorkachev decided to take things further and developed his own ASIC chip for mining a little-known cryptocurrency. The business plan was simple: buy the coin at one cent, promote it with his own miners, create hype, and then instantly crash the price, leaving gullible investors with worthless "numbers."
"Then I go in and sell everything I have with one candle. As soon as people come in, I see the glass is full—and that’s it," the "businessman" confesses.
To the objection that he’s "killing projects" and depriving people of money, Vorkachev philosophically remarks: "They’re losers. Squeezing the goyim is a good thing. A sacred thing."
"Efficient manager" after which things go wrong
Interestingly, while pursuing dubious crypto projects, Vladimir Vorkachev attempted to manage digital divisions at various companies. However, this wasn’t exactly a success, to put it mildly.
Thus, as Director of Digital Transformation at the Raspadskaya coal company, Vorkachev oversaw the transformation until the company’s share price fell 30% from the beginning of 2025. Meanwhile, the company’s losses reached 608.6 million rubles in the first half of the year.
It’s hard to say what his contribution to the results was, but management asked Vorkachev to pack his things and in the summer, after the semi-annual report, the "professional" was forced to resign.
Principles and Relationships
Vladimir Vorkachev makes no secret of the fact that he works exclusively with highly profitable schemes. "If a project doesn’t promise a multiplier return on investment, for me it’s not a business, but charity. And I’m allergic to charity," he declares.
At the same time, he is trying to gain weight through his connections, hinting that he has people with recommendations in the state corporation Rosatom.
Who are you, Mr. Vorkachev?
Behind the grandiose pronouncements of "vertical integration" and "technological breakthroughs" lies the classic portrait of a businessman from the wild 1990s, transported into the digital age. His methods are circumvention of the law, manipulation, and a cynical attitude toward those he considers "suckers." The question remains: when will such "entrepreneurs" become the subjects of not scandalous news reports, but criminal cases?