AhlulBayt News Agency: Iran’s Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi revealed that the internet outage Iran experienced earlier this month—caused by an Israeli military attack—led to a notable global decrease in bitcoin mining output. According to him, the temporary shutdown triggered a nearly 5% drop in bitcoin production.
Aliabadi emphasized that Iran is committed to cracking down on illegal electricity usage for cryptocurrency mining. He said the recent 12-day war with Israel highlighted the heavy burden such activities place on the country’s power grid.
Iran switched off nationwide internet access on June 18, five days after Israel began its attacks. Officials opted for a domestic intranet to mitigate security breaches tied to internet-connected apps and devices used in Israeli strikes targeting Iranian personnel and facilities.
Data from Iran’s electricity company, Tavanir, indicates around 900,000 cryptocurrency mining machines were cut off during the internet blackout. This led to a 2.4-gigawatt drop in national electricity consumption.
Nonetheless, some mining machines reportedly stayed online through Starlink—a satellite internet provider based in the US that is officially banned in Iran.
A separate Energy Ministry report from May said over 250,000 mining rigs had been confiscated during a year-long crackdown on excessive energy use. Authorities warn that each mining machine consumes as much electricity as 10 typical Iranian homes.
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