During the extreme summer weather conditions, Iran plans to cut off electricity for every authorized crypto mining rig once again.
On June 21, the Iranian government issued a statement, indicating that it would be cutting the power supply for authorized crypto miners as the country is suffering from a number of power outages.
According to the official report, licensed crypto mining entities in Iran won’t have the ability to carry out any crypto-related mining activities from the beginning of July until further notice.
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Rajabi Mashhhadi, a spokesperson for Iran’s power industry, recently mentioned that Iran has a total of 118 authorized crypto mining centers that “must cut off their electricity supply from the national grid from the beginning of July.”
"Last week, the country's electricity consumption recorded an all-time high of 62,500 megawatts (MW) during peak consumption, which is a significant figure.”
The Iranian government issued a warning, stating that the consumption demand will eventually surpass 63,000 MW, thus electricity supply must be limited.
According to statistics released by Cambridge University, Iran was responsible for 0.12% of the BTC network’s hash rate. On top of that, it was previously listed as one of the top 10 countries that led Bitcoin (BTC) mining. In fact, last year, in August, electricity demand in Iran hit a new high and exceeded 67,000 MW.
Interestingly enough, Iran was given the green light to conduct cryptocurrency mining back in 2019, becoming one of the first countries in the world that received such an opportunity. Since then, Iran's government demanded that firms involved in mining activities must receive licensing, pay a higher tariff for electricity, as well as give all mined Bitcoin (BTC) to the authorities.
Nevertheless, this isn’t the first time the government paused crypto mining in the country. For instance, last year, Iranian authorities came up with a decision to impose some regulatory measures in order to reduce crypto mining and save energy for the winter. Later in December, Iran also prohibited miners from conducting such operations in an effort to save some fuel for district heating.
In other news, back in March, the Russian Ministry of Energy Development was looking to legalize crypto mining in the country on a "regional level" at determined "sites" to ensure that energy surpluses were used properly.
