Share this article
Rogue Employee Mined 500K Bitcoins in 2011, Qiwi CEO Says
An employee at Qiwi reportedly mined roughly 500,000 bitcoins in 2011 by hijacking the company's payment terminals, CEO Sergey Solonin said Wednesday.
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 8:12 a.m. Published Jul 25, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
The CEO of Russian e-payments firm Qiwi said Wednesday that an employee used its payment terminals to mine 500,000 bitcoins in 2011.
CEO Sergey Solonin told the story while speaking to students at the Moscow Advanced Communications School. Solonin – whose company has thrown its weight behind the Russian government's work with blockchain and launched its own blockchain subsidiary in March of last year – said the experience was what first introduced him to the concept, according to a transcript published on the website Rusbase.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Solonin said he discovered that one of his developers had hijacked the company's hardware to mine bitcoin when the machines were not in use. Moreover, he found that the developer had made roughly $5 million over the course of a few months – a great deal more than the company had seen in profit from the machines.
He explained:
"I thought 'what a crazy stuff,' we're struggling to earn 3 cents on those terminals and such a gold mine is actually hidden here."
The developer quit the firm after being asked to turn over the profit from using company property, Solonin added. While he told his remaining employees to continue mining, the network difficulty had become too great for Qiwi's hardware to handle.
Qiwi refused to disclose the name of the developer to the Russian newspaper Vedomosty, which confirmed the story with the press office.
As Solonin told the website The Bell, his understanding is that the employee in question went on to lose all their coins at a now-failed cryptocurrency exchange.
Editor's note: Statements in this article have been translated from Russian.
Sergey Solonin image via Shutterstock
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin’s Deep Correction Sets Stage for December Rebound, Says K33 Research
K33 Research says market fear is outweighing fundamentals as bitcoin nears key levels. December could offer an entry point for bold investors.
What to know:
- K33 Research says bitcoin’s steep correction shows signs of bottoming, with December potentially marking a turning point.
- The firm has argued that the market is overreacting to long-term risks while ignoring near-term signals of strength, like low leverage and solid support levels.
- With likely policy shifts ahead and cautious positioning in futures, K33 sees more upside potential than risk of another major collapse.
Top Stories
