Iran Temporarily Bans Crypto Mining Until Sep 22 Ahead of Peak Electricity Demand Season

After blaming BTC mining for electricity blackouts and sending spies to hunt down illegal miners, Iran has placed a temporary ban on such endeavors in its borders.

• According to a Bloomberg coverage, the Iranian government has placed a ban on all cryptocurrency mining endeavors until September 22nd. The ban is effective immediately and comes ahead of the country’s highest energy consumption season.
• This is Iran’s most strict attempt to reduce crypto mining, which soared in popularity amid the rapid price growth of bitcoin and other digital assets.
• The country’s officials claimed for months that its electricity network has failed to sustain this rush, leading to numerous blackouts. Somewhat expectedly, they blamed it on crypto mining.
• Although Iran previously asserted that some mining operations will be legalized, around 85% of these activities were still unlicensed.
• The authorities took another step recently by sending spies to locate and stop miners using household electricity.
• According to Cambridge University’s mining map, Iran is responsible for roughly 4% of Bitcoin’s hash rate.
• This is the second similar news coming from Asia in recent weeks. CryptoPotato reported previously that China, the leading country in terms of BTC mining, plans a nationwide crackdown.
• So far, though, Iran’s decision hasn’t impacted the price of BTC, which remains above $40,000. In contrast, when China made its latest move, bitcoin slumped by several thousand dollars in hours.