The Iranian Ministry of Commerce grants 30 crypto mining licenses

Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade has issued operating licenses to 30 cryptocurrency mining centers in the country, the country’s Financial Tribue reported last Wednesday.

Citing data from the ministry’s website, the report said that Iran’s Semnan Province has received the most permits, with six crypto-mining farms currently allowed to operate in the area. Alborz Province has received four such permits, followed by Mazandaran, East Azerbaijan and Zanjan Provinces. The province of Tehran, in which the country’s capital is located, is said to have only received a license to operate a cryptocurrency mining hub.

The ministry has also issued 2,579 branch licenses to new industrial cryptocurrency miners across the country, 305 of which were backed up by Zanjan Province. The province of Fars and West Azerbaijan followed Zanjan with 262 and 247 permits, respectively.

According to the report, Iranian companies require an operating license to start a legitimate cryptocurrency mining business. Eligible applicants must obtain permission to set up and build their commercial unit within 12 months and then apply for an operating permit.

The report notes that mining cryptocurrencies in Iran is legal as miners were allowed to work under the rules approved by the government in July 2019. Regardless of the legal status of cryptocurrency mining in Iran, the government is struggling due to the growing pressure on the national power grid. According to the report, authorized crypto miners pay much higher energy costs for mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) than other residential or commercial customers.

The department did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

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The news comes after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced in late May a ban on Bitcoin mining in the country until September to ease pressure on the national electricity grid. The Iranian provincial police later confiscated more than 7,000 oil rigs on an operating farm in the capital Tehran last Tuesday. Cryptocurrency mining farms are considered to be the largest and most important energy drain in the country.

According to the Iran Power Transmission, Distribution and Production Company, more than 188,000 units of cryptocurrency mining equipment have been seized in the past 12 months. These devices have reportedly caused 180 trillion rials ($ 4.2 billion) in damage to the national grid and power distribution equipment.