Iranian authorities granted a license for cryptocurrency mining company iMiner to operate in the province of Semnan. With 6,000 rigs, Turkey-based iMiner’s setup would purportedly make it one of the largest crypto miners in the country. According to a news report, iMiner invested nearly $7.3 million into the crypto mining farm in the Semnan Province of Iran. It will mine cryptocurrency with 6,000 rigs capable of 96,000 terahashes per second (TH/s) in total, which equates to 16 TH/s per rig on average.
iMiner will continue to offer trading and custody services in the Middle East.
Turkey-based iMiner will continue to offer trading and custody services to customers in the Middle Eastern countries through Semnan and their offices in Tehran. Crypto mining is finding traction in Iran because of the subsidized power rates and companies as far as from China, Ukraine, and France is looking to open crypto mining farms in the country. Countries with cheap electricity have emerged as vital hosts of crypto mining as China continues to host the most number of crypto mining companies.
Iran has issued over 1000 licenses to crypto mining firms.
The Iranian government labeled cryptocurrency mining as industrial activity in July last year and has since then it has issued over 1,000 licenses to crypto mining companies. However, the Iranian government has proceeded with caution due to the opaque nature of cryptocurrencies and the electricity-intense process strain on Iran’s national power grid. Crypto mining consumes large quantities of energy as it uses costly software to solve complex puzzles to validate transactions in the cryptocurrency.
Currently, Iran’s economy is suffering from the ongoing pandemic and various sanctions enforced by the United States and other western countries. Reportedly some Iranian military officials suggested using cryptocurrencies in order to evade sanctions and help facilitate trade.
