Iran seizes 1,000 bitcoin mining machines using subsidised power

Iranian authorities have seized about 1,000 bitcoin mining machines in two abandoned factories, state television reported, after warnings that the activity had led to a spike in consumption of government-subsidised electricity.

“Two of these bitcoin farms have been identified, with a consumption of one megawatt,” Arash Navab, a power official in the central province of Yazd, told the television.

The machines, which produce cryptocurrencies that are banned in Iran, were mostly to blame for a 7 per cent increase in power consumption in the month to June 21, according to an Energy Ministry spokesman, quoted by the website of state-run Press TV.

In 2018, Iran’s central bank banned the country’s banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, over money-laundering concerns.