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Iranian police seized 7,000 units of cryptocurrency mining from an illegal cryptocurrency farm, according to a Reuters report, citing Iranian state media.
According to the report, this is their biggest loot to date and comes less than a month after Iranian authorities banned mining of cryptocurrencies until September of this year. The ban was part of the government’s efforts to reduce the number of power outages it blamed on high demand for electricity over the summer.
According to Tehran’s police chief General Hossein Rahimi, the 7,000 minors were seized from a deserted factory west of the capital, the official IRNA news agency said, according to the Reuters report.
The country accounts for about 4.5% of all bitcoin mining, according to data collected by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
According to the company, the country’s cheap electricity supply has recently attracted many miners. An increase in mining activity has allowed the country to “bypass” trade embargoes and earn hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets which can then be used to buy imports and circumvent sanctions.
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