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Chinese investors help Iran's largest Bitcoin mining facility to resume its operations. - Chaintimes.com

source-logo  chaintimes.com 15 April 2021 09:35, UTC

After four months of closure, Iran’s largest Bitcoin mining facility is set to resume its operations. According to a report by IranWire, the decision to restart operations at the Bitcoin mining farm was due to massive financing put up by Chinese backers. Located in Rafsanjan, a city in the Kerman Province of southeast Iran, the Bitcoin mining farm was at the center of controversy earlier in 2021.

Authorities in the province ordered the closure of the mining hub in January.

Earlier in January, the authorities in the province ordered the mining hub’s closure amid sweeping electricity blackouts in Iran. Indeed, the Rafsanjan Bitcoin mining center reportedly consumes 175 megawatt-hour of electricity — almost a third of the total power allocated to crypto miners in Iran. Established back in 2019, the BTC mining farm is reportedly the largest data center in the Middle East. Addressing the city council on Wednesday, Rafsanjan representative Hossein Jalali argued that the Bitcoin mining center’s huge investments “should not be lost.”

Iran provides cheap electricity costs to crypto miners. 

Residents are reportedly concerned that the reopening is proceeding without any efforts to mitigate the electricity outage problems. The Rafsanjan facility is one of many Chinese-backed Bitcoin mining facilities in Iran, especially in the southeast special economic zone. Chinese money flowing into Iranian Bitcoin mining operations appears somewhat along the margins of the economic relationship between both nations under the aegis of the “25-year contract.” Stricter electricity consumption laws in Mainland China are reportedly forcing miners out of some of the major crypto mining hubs in the country. On the other hand, Iran offers an alternative for such enterprises, given the country’s cheap electricity costs. Meanwhile, some Iranian Bitcoin miners have complained that Chinese Bitcoin miners’ presence is making the endeavor much less profitable for local ventures.

chaintimes.com