Iran cuts electricity supply to legal mining companies
The Iranian government is restricting the activities of miners to reduce the load on the local energy supply. Even the ability to use digital assets to evade international sanctions does not become an obstacle to such radical decisions.
According to Bloomberg Law, the restrictions will affect all 118 mining centers that have official licenses. The power cut has been scheduled for June 22. The spokesman of the Ministry of Energy, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, told state television that the government regards the decision as part of preparations for a seasonal increase in demand for electricity.
Source: www.arzdigital.com
According to Mashhadi, Iran is facing a traditional seasonal shortage of energy resources. Specialists’ forecasts indicate that demand will exceed 63,000 MWt within the next week. Considering the energy sector situation last year, a record demand of more than 67 MWt was recorded in August.
The crypto industry received official recognition in Iran in 2019. From now on, mining companies can obtain a license, provided that they purchase electricity at higher tariffs and sell BTC to the Iranian central bank. At the same time, numerous unlicensed mining farms ceased to exist. They were found even in mosques that receive free electricity.
Digital assets for Iran are an opportunity to resist the almost absolute economic embargo from the United States. Amidst insufficient fiat cash and a deep recession but having significant reserves of natural gas and oil, the government considers cryptocurrencies as an effective opportunity to stabilize the state of the economy.
In past years, Iran has already restricted the activities of mining companies. In particular, in 2021, the government cut the electricity supply twice to reduce the load on energy systems.
