Iran’s state electricity company Tavanir has started disconnecting legal miners of cryptocurrency from the country’s national power grid amid a record surge in electricity use that has caused brief outages in large cities.
Members of the Macroeconomics Commission at the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) has stressed on the need for passing necessary regulations related to the exchange of cryptocurrencies in the country.
Iran’s Energy Ministry has revised its electricity pricing rules for cryptocurrency mining months after rising demand from miners caused power shortages in parts of the country over a cold winter season.
Iran’s state-run regulator for online payment platforms has imposed an indefinite ban on websites that offer cryprocurrency trading services.
Public interest in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is booming in Iran as a report estimates that unregulated exchanges are engaged in nearly $200 million worth of trade for digital currencies everyday.
Authorized cryptocurrency miners in Iran have been allowed to resume operations after fuel supply to electricity power plants returned to normal, a spokesperson for Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said.
With estimated cryptomining capacity at $1.4 billion, Iran is among the top in the world, a senior Industries Ministry official said.
Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) has ordered licensed cryptocurrency mining farms to halt operations for two weeks to lessen power shortages across the country.
The Iranian government has amended its regulations on cryptocuurencies to allow them be exclusively used for funding imports at a time of increased pressure on the country’s normal use of hard currencies.
Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) has shut 1,100 unlicensed crypto mining farms for illegally using subsidized electricity.