Kosovo Police Confiscate 300 Crypto Mining Rigs During Power Shortage

Kosovo police have intensified their crackdown on crypto miners in the country, confiscating more than 300 mining machines on January 8 alone.

The Kosovo police announced on January 8 that they seized 272 "Antminer" bitcoin mining machines in the city of Leposavic and another 39 near Pristina.

Kosovo Police confiscated 272 "Antminer" encryption mining machines in Leposavic on January 8 Source: Kosovo Police

Meanwhile, police also stopped a driver carrying six cryptominers and 42 graphics cards (GPUs) near Druar in Vushtrri. The driver was later interviewed and released.

The country’s economy minister, Artane Rizvanolli, expressed support for the Kosovo police on Twitter, writing: “Tens of thousands of euros saved per month by taxpayers during crisis = energy for hundreds of Kosovo households.”

Kosovo's energy shortage

In December, Kosovo declared a 60-day state of emergency due to an energy crisis and power shortages. The economy minister has since imposed a blanket ban on crypto mining on Jan. 5. Kosovo currently relies on imports for 40% of its energy.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin mining consumes 101 terawatt-hours of energy per year, or more than the entire Philippines uses. Still, miners are increasingly turning to renewable energy, especially in the United States, which has become a new mining hub.

According to Dutch news platform The Paypers, crypto mining has been on the rise in Kosovo for some time. Since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999 and until recently, people living in the Serb-majority northern cities have enjoyed free electricity.

At the end of November 2021, KOSTT, the power network system operator, announced that it would no longer provide free electricity to four cities in the north of the country: Mitrovica North, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic. .

The Balkan country was part of Serbia before declaring independence in 2008 and has stuck to the subsidies since. Several other countries, including Iran and Kazakhstan, have also expressed concerns about mining-related power outages in recent months.

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