PS4 consoles seized in Ukraine used for FIFA accounts, not crypto mining

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Last week, Cointelegraph reported the seizure of 3,800 PlayStation consoles believed to have been used to mine cryptocurrency. The confiscated gaming units were part of a supply of equipment discovered by Ukrainian authorities during a raid on a farm accused of tampering with electricity meters to steal electricity from the local grid.

Based on early reports at the time, PS4 consoles, graphics cards, processing units and other hardware found at the scene were being used for illegal crypto mining operations.

However, according to a survey by Ukrainian business publication Delo, the seized PlayStation consoles were being used to generate content packs and coins for FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), a game mode of the popular football game FIFA.

Players typically need to earn FUT coins and cards by winning in-game football matches, but the destroyed warehouse would have generated black market variants of these in-game items. According to Delo, the Ukrainian Secret Service did not not yet confirmed or denied their findings, the agency having chosen to keep details of the ongoing investigation secret.

Related: Ukrainian Police Seize 3,800 PS4 Consoles Used For Illegal Crypto Mining

Cointelegraphs’ initial report questioned the likelihood of the illegal transaction being used for cryptocurrency mining, stating:

The PlayStation 4 is not the ideal platform for mining cryptocurrency. Considering its slightly outdated setup compared to many mining rigs available today, even a 16-console PS4 setup wouldn’t generate significant returns with legal use of electricity.

However, the use of gaming hardware to mine cryptocurrencies is not unheard of and has actually been linked to shortages of graphics processing units (GPUs) for non-crypto users. Growing miners’ demand for GPUs coupled with a global semiconductor shortage has kept budget PC gamers from securing next-gen graphics cards for their hardware.

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