Iranian authorities cut off power to cryptocurrency miners

Iran has decided to disconnect registered miners from the power grid due to the country’s electricity shortage. This was announced by Iranian Energy Minister Mustafa Rajabi Mashhadi.

According to the Tehran Times, last week, energy consumption in the country reached 62,500 MW. This figure will increase in the near future, but there is not enough electricity generation in Iran. Therefore, in order to avoid rolling blackouts (disconnecting consumers from the grid to limit the load on the power system), the government will stop supplying electricity to miners.

Currently, 118 mining companies are legally operating in Iran, and even more are mining cryptocurrencies underground, all because of the relatively low cost of electricity. Earlier, the Iranian authorities tried to fight against underground mining by increasing the penalties for unlicensed mining in April. However, this did not have much of an impact on the decline in the popularity of this type of activity.