Iran cuts power supply for licensed cryptocurrency miners

Tavanir, the Iran Energy Era, Distribution and Transmission Firm, instructed licensed rigs to halt the energy-intensive mining of cryptocurrencies till additional discover because the nation faces main energy outages in lots of cities.

The authority mentioned in an announcement that “There are presently 118 licensed [digital currency] extraction facilities within the nation, which should lower off their electrical energy provide from the nationwide grid from the start of July.”

“Final week, the nation’s electrical energy consumption recorded an all-time excessive of 62,500 megawatts (MW) throughout peak consumption, which is a major determine. In line with forecasts, this week’s consumption requirement will exceed 63,000 MW, which suggests we should restrict electrical energy provide,” it added.

However, the state electrical energy firm warned that unlawful cryptocurrency mining in Iran accounts for almost 85% of the trade’s consumption. As such, officers commonly accuse unlicensed operators of utilizing huge quantities of electrical energy, draining greater than 2GW every day and inflicting 20 p.c of energy blackouts nationwide.

In line with trade estimates, round 5 p.c of worldwide BTC mining is happening within the Islamic Republic. The flourishing trade allowed Iran it to earn a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from promoting cryptocurrencies, which have been used to mitigate the impression of Western sanctions.

Earlier in 2021, the nationwide electrical energy firm introduced a four-month ban on mining cryptocurrencies. Authorities lifted the ban in mid-September after licensed amenities had voluntarily shut down their operations to ease the burden.

Iran legalized bitcoin mining in 2019

Whereas crypto miners are getting pushed out of many international locations, the power-hungry trade within the Islamic Republic acquired the inexperienced mild to legally function. Iran was among the many first international locations on the earth to acknowledge cryptocurrency mining in 2019. Since then, the nation has established a licensing regime that requires miners to have a licence, determine themselves, pay the next tariff for electrical energy, and to promote their mined bitcoins to the federal government.

Though mining bitcoin was much less worthwhile once more, just lately the enterprise has turn out to be dearer as a result of a bidding conflict for mining gear.

Bitcoin mining is a really aggressive trade as miners worldwide are verifying transactions whereas securing the community for financial incentives. Moreover, the worldwide demand is rising in lockstep with Bitcoin value. The abrupt upside motion of the bitcoin value for many of 2021 meant strong enterprise for crypto miners as they’re making some huge cash confirming blocks.