As reported by the Chief of police in the Capital city of Tehran, authorities have been cracking down on many illegal crypto miners that have continued operations, despite the countrywide ban implemented.
Chief Hossein Rahimi revealed that more than 50 crypto mining locations have been raided in the capital city in the past couple of days, resulting in the discovery and arrests of nearly 3000 illegal crypto miners. Whether at a small scale or a large scale, crypto miners spread across Iran are experiencing a tough time as their precious mining rigs are being confiscated by the authorities. Miners using the electricity provided to them to their homes are reportedly getting worse treatment in terms of huge fines. By analyzing the electricity consumption of a few homes, the authorities managed to catch 4 miners operating crypto mining rigs. An average of 7000 crypto mining machines has also been taken down, operating in an abandoned factory.
The Police of Tehran has conducted multiple raids in the past few days and discovered an additional 3000 illegal miners. More than 50 locations were raided. The largest crypto mining farming was the one with almost 7000 rigs installed, drinking up the country’s electricity supply tremendously.
Power Crisis
Crackdown on crypto miners had started after the announcement from the President of Iran last month, regarding the banning of Bitcoin and other crypto mining operations nationwide, until September. The move was made to ensure that the people of Iran are not running out of electricity, especially in the scorching heat of the summer season of June and July. Electrical Engineers from Iran’s grid stations have said that if these mining operations were to continue, they would consume almost 4% of the average daily electricity consumption in the country, depriving many areas of receiving the proper electricity supply they need.
Temporary Ban?
Iran had previously shown a soft side towards crypto mining because of the potential trading opportunities it brings, but as the energy crisis made a rise in the country, resulting in multiple blackouts, so the authorities started to take strict actions especially on operations that drink up huge amounts of constant electricity supply that includes crypto mining. The authorities of Iran had given a green signal to crypto mining, as long as miners were registered and become subject to regulations.
