Iran is offering a $20 bounty for Iranians to report illegal cryptocurrency mining operations in a bid to reduce the burden that unregulated crypto mining operations have put on the country's overburdened power grid.
An Iran International report exposed the fact the nation was in the throes of the worst heatwave in 50 years, which triggered widespread power outages and disrupted industrial production. Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, the head of the state electricity company Tavanir, indicated that the power crisis is further worsened by illegal crypto mining. Over 230,000 illegal mining devices have been identified that consume between 800 and 900 megawatts of electricity. To replace this shortfall, the nation would have to expend in developing a 1,300-megawatt plant.
Apart from their campaign against smugglers, Iranian security forces have also been cracking down on more than 9,000 accounts of 454 people engaged in illicit trading since 2022, according to the paper. That is part of a wider scheme to stem illegal activities that are taking a toll on the state's overstretched resources.
At the beginning of this year, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Angus King requested an investigation into how otherwise sanctioned mining of cryptocurrency by Iran could be used to inadvertently aid sanctioned activities. The claim is that cryptos being mined in Iran will eventually be used to skirt around the same sanctions and will fund terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Iran's military operations.
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