A new licensed bitcoin mining farm is getting set up in Iran - report

The government of Iran is said to have issued a license to Turkey-based iMiner to mine bitcoin in Iran.

Local media outlet Tabnak reported the news last week, saying that the license given by Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade will allow iMiner to deploy 6,000 bitcoin mining machines in the country’s Semnan city. (Iran currently has a total of over 148,000 bitcoin mining machines in use)

The new deployment will lead iMiner to operate at a total capacity of 96,000 terahashes per second (TH/s), per the report. iMiner has invested 311 billion rials ($7.3 million) to set up the farm, which is said to be the largest mining facility in Iran. 

iMiner already has an office in Iran’s Tehran city “for administrative purposes only” and had been providing services “only in an informal manner,” per its website. The license could be the official go-ahead to its operations in the country.

iMiner claims to have over seven years of experience in bitcoin mining, and also operates a miner rental service in Turkey, Russia, the U.S., Canada and Iran, per its website. 

Iran authorized crypto mining as industrial activity in July 2019, and since then, the country’s government has issued over 1,000 licenses to crypto mining firms. Iran’s subsidized electricity rates have led to several miners flocking to the country. Miners are reportedly charged ~$0.11 for one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy. During the peak summer season (June to September), however, the charges are higher at ~$0.46 per kWh.

A person with knowledge of the matter, however, told The Block that bitcoin miners in Iran are actually charged in the range of $.005 to $.015 for one kWh of electricity.

Update: This story has been updated to include comments from a source