Iranian President announced a ban on cryptocurrency mining until the fall. The decision is due to the increased frequency of overloading of power grids.

Iran banned cryptocurrency mining after a series of blackouts in the country's largest cities. The ban was announced by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during his speech on state television. The law took effect immediately. The ban will last until September 22.

Iranian authorities accuse cryptocurrency miners of overloading power grids and frequent power outages that damage other industries and ordinary residents of the country.

According to Cambridge University estimates, 3.4% of BTC production was mined in Iran in the first four months of 2020, which puts Iran in the sixth place in the world in terms of the number of bitcoins mined. For comparison: the share of mined coins in China is 69.3%. Another analytical company, Elliptic, estimates that the share of the Islamic Republic is higher, approximately 4.5%.

Iran has 50 licensed mining centers located in 31 provinces, according to the Tansim news agency. Their total power consumption is 209 megawatts.

However, the majority of mining centers in Iran remain unlicensed. As noted by Bloomberg, 85% of mining companies did not receive a compulsory license to operate. Iranian authorities regularly report on the detection and suppression of the work of such illegal mining centers, which are sometimes located even in mosques.

Miners are attracted to Iran by the low cost of electricity, which is subsidized from the federal budget.