Thousands of crypto mining equipment were under seizure for almost two years.
Miners in Iran heaved a sigh of relief as an Iranian court ordered the release of seized mining equipment. Over the last two years, authorities in Iran seized mining equipment due to the stress on energy grids in winter with high consumption levels. Iran’s Organization for Collection and Sale of State-Owned Property (OCSSOP) has been the authority responsible for the seizure of the equipment since 2021.
The head of Iran’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, Abdolmajid Eshtehadi, said “Currently some 150,000 crypto mining equipment are held by the OCSSOP, a large part of which will be released following judicial rulings. Machines have already been returned.” But, he also admitted his concern regarding the addition of stress to the country’s grids due to the release of the equipment. According to him, appropriate plans for using the hardware by the Generation and Transmission Company of Iran (TAVANIR) could help prevent stress on Iran’s grid system.
Iran’s electricity consumption reached record levels in June 2022, when authorities decided to stop supplying power to even legal mining firms. The consumption levels had touched 62,500 MW at that point. Moreover, Iran used to be responsible for 0.12% of the Bitcoin hash rate at that point, which has now touched 2%. Recent laws in Iran have also fined those using subsidized energy for crypto mining.