Iran Sees More Than 1,600 Illegal Crypto Mining Operations Shut Down

The authorities of Iran had successfully managed to shut down an excess of 1,600 crypto mining farms across the country, doing so in 18 months’ time. This is revealed by way of a new report. The shutdowns of illegal crypto mining operations occurred just as Iran had officially recognized crypto mining as a legal industry.

1,620 Operations Shut Down (And Counting)

The report itself was made on the Financial Tribune, a local newspaper outlet. In this report, the Tribune highlights that the illegal farms, 1,620 in total, had been taking around 250 megawatts of electricity from Iran’s power grid. The real issue comes when you look at their electricity usage: Many of these operations were leveraging subsidized electricity that was dedicated to domestic use only.

The Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir), the state power provider, had sent a spokesperson to the Tribune. This spokesperson had repeated the company’s previous affirmations of cracking down against these illegal crypto operations.

Iran Isn’t Playing Around With Crypto Mining Enforcement

In particular, the spokesperson reiterated the strictness of Tavanir in how it deals with unlawful mining operations. The spokesperson stated that these unlicensed miners stand to be fined as much as the value loss they forced within Iran’s national power grid. Alongside this, the mining operations themselves will be disconnected from the grid as they face prosecution.

Crypto mining was officially recognized as an industry back in July of 2019. From there, crypto miners were mandated to gain the authorization from the Government needed to keep their operations going. The main idea behind the legalization of the crypto mining industry was to bring more revenue in for the state, boost the country’s economy, as well as making crypto mining a punishable offense if done illegally.

New Technologies Bring New Oppertunities

Even so, many crypto mining operations opted to go underground to dodge the tariffs leveled against the newly-regulated space. Thus, a small war on crime started to break out between power companies, the Iranian Government, as well as these illegal crypto mining operations.

As the report itself notes, Tavanir has been the most prominent victim in these illegal crypto mining operations. However, the power company is allowed to shut these operations down should it find them.

As for the power tariffs leveled against the crypto miners of Iran, the Energy Ministry of the country used the average power export rates as a baseline. These rates are promptly doubled in the summer, when the country uses more power, before going back down in the winter.