President Vladimir Putin backs a Russian government proposal to tax and regulate the mining of cryptocurrencies, rejecting the central bank’s proposal to ban it completely, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Axar.az reports that Putin supports the proposal to restrict mining to regions with a surplus of electricity, such as Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Karelia, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is not public.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say what Putin’s stance was and said that the president ordered the government and central bank to work out their differences.

The press services for the government and central bank did not immediately respond to requests to comment on the status of the talks.

Putin’s position is good news for an industry that has suffered numerous setbacks recently, including China’s complete ban last year and Kazakhstan temporarily unplugging miners this week as the country faced blackouts. Russia became the world’s third-biggest crypto-miner in 2021, after the U.S. and Kazakhstan, according to Cambridge University data released in October.