Sixty-three illegal cryptocurrency mining centers were shut in the week to July 21, half of which reported by whistleblowers.
According to Energy Ministry's news service, some 714 illegal equipment were seized during the period with a total consumption of 1,499 kilowatts.
The share of whistleblowers in finding cryptomining farms and centers has recently increased. They accounted for 43% of the detections of unauthorized farms.
Iran Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Company (Tavanir) inspectors detected 32% of the miners and the remaining were found by other methods, such as analyzing power consumption records.
Tavanir, has employed a variety of measures for detecting unauthorized crypto farms including on-site inspections and analyzing consumption records of subscribers.
The company has announced rewards of up to 200 million rials ($725) for those who report the illegal cryptomining centers, farms and residential units. It says the rewards have encouraged the people to help find and penalize the wrongdoers.
Mining virtual currency is legal in Iran and miners can operate under rules approved by the government in 2019. Mining digital currencies without an operational license from the Ministry of Industries is illegal.
When power shortages increased last summer, Tavanir started shutting illegal cryptomining units.
An estimated 7,308 unauthorized cryptomining centers have been detected and closed since 2020. Seized hardware reached 235,165, Tavanir says. Earlier it said that illegal miners used 3.84 trillion rials ($16.5 million) in subsidized electricity and inflicted 380 billion rials ($1.3 million) in damages to the national grid.
Stringent Measures
The utility recently announced new measures to discourage unlicensed cryptomining.
According to the company spokesman, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, fines have increased 400% in the new regulations, which means "unlicensed cryptominers must pay their electricity bills at rates four times higher than electricity export rates that already are 100 times higher than the subsidized tariffs for households."
Access of first-time offenders to subsidized energy, including electricity, natural gas and liquid fuels, will be cut for three months, he said, adding that this would be cut off for one full year for repeat offenders.
Before implementation of the new penalties, the utility used to confiscate illegal cryptomining equipment and cut their electricity. Offenders were also required to pay for damages to the grid.
The main power supplier has urged policymakers to further tighten the rules for illegal mining.
