Over 9,000 Crypto Mining Farms Seized In Iran To Combat Electricity Crisis

Crypto mining surfs a hefty amount of electricity and has become a major cause of the electricity crisis in some regions like Iran, Kosovo, etc. Similarly, after the Iranian government saw power blackouts last summer, it put the state’s police on their toes, which detected and ceased 9,404 mining farms in the previous five months.

As per the Iranian media outlet Iran International, Kambiz Nazerian, head of Tehran Electricity Distribution Company, noted in a statement on Monday that police found all the energy-guzzling devices settled in the districts of the Iran capital Tehran. 

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Notably, a large portion of illegal mining farms has already been confiscated by Iranian police in June, equating to 7,000 illegal mining machines. 

The country has been continuously detecting illegal mining activities in different cities in Iran for the last few years. In addition, the report adds that most of the unregistered miners settled on mining farms in public places like mosques or schools to benefit from the subsidized or free electricity provided by the government.

Crypto mining requires intensive electricity power to compute the calculations via heavy computers to earn a cryptocurrency. The abundant quantity of fossil fuels in Iran, used for electricity production, attracted tech-enthusiasts for mining in the state.

According to the report on Iranian media outlets, crypto mining operations in the country are conducted mainly by influential networks and a few Chinese groups using subsidized cheap electricity.

Abundant Crypto Mining Operations Rose Electricity Demand In Iran

In line with the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index report, Iran contributed 7.5% of Bitcoin’s hashrate in March last year. And the country has been facing electricity outages and water shortages despite being an oil-rich state. These blackouts led to national protests, and the authorities blamed crypto mining for the rising demand.

In May, the Iranian authorities took a stand to control the rising electricity demand and banned all mining operations within the region for four months. The restriction will be lifted in September. Still, to meet the required need for power in the hottest months of summer there, authorities cut the power of 118 licensed mining platforms.

Iranian authorities also implied restrictions on the mining farms in the summer and winter of the previous year. But the licensed platforms were free to not oblige with the rules while illegal miners were restricted.

Moreover, the country detected and seized 45,000 application-specific integrated circuit machines at the beginning of last year. Notably, the state-run energy provider Tavanir proceeded with the operations using subsidized electricity.

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The Iranian authority also shut down 1,620 crypto mining operations earlier this month. As per the report, the mining activities consumed 250 megawatts of electrical power in a period of over 18 months.

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