#Crypto Market Rebound# ABD, Why Did Iran's Nuclear Facility Attack Bitcoin Hashrate Suddenly Drop? Was Iran Mining BTC? Here Are the Estimates of the Amount of BTC They Held.

Recently, after the US struck a nuclear facility in Iran, there was a sudden drop in Bitcoin hashrate. Here are the details.
Iran has been turning to cryptocurrency mining and trading since 2019 due to the depreciation of its local currency caused by heavy international sanctions and high inflation. However, experts say that making a precise estimate of how much Bitcoin (BTC) the country has obtained through mining is still nearly impossible.

According to the March 2021 data from the Cambridge University Alternative Finance Center, Iran accounted for 7.5% of the global Bitcoin mining hashrate. This rate dropped to just 0.12% in January 2022.
Andrew Scott Easton, the CEO of the investment company Masterminded specializing in Bitcoin mining, predicts that Iran has historically obtained approximately 60,000 BTC through mining. This amount is equivalent to about 6.4 billion dollars at current prices. On the other hand, Kent Halliburton, CEO of Sazmining, states that Iran may have mined between 100,000 and 200,000 BTC since 2018, and this amount could range from 10.7 billion dollars to 21.4 billion dollars. The fact that Iran started granting legal permits for crypto mining in 2019 increases the significance of this period. However, according to Rajat Ahlawat from the regulatory firm Crystal Intelligence, the predictions in this area are quite complex. This is because a large part of the mining in Iran has moved underground to avoid high electricity tariffs.
According to the Iranian National Resistance Council, while approximately 1,000 legal cryptocurrency mining farm licenses were issued in 2020, this number exceeded 10,000 in 2022. However, according to former President Hassan Rouhani, as of 2021, 85% of mining was taking place without a license. According to data from the state electricity company Tavanir, around 700,000 illegal mining devices are operating in the country.
Ahlawat states that licensed miners cannot make significant profits due to high electricity tariffs, which is why many people engage in illegal mining at homes, mosques, and schools, places where there is access to low-cost or free electricity. It is also believed that some organizations affiliated with the Iranian government are mining in this way.
Illegal mining activities are putting a serious strain on the electricity grid nationwide, occasionally causing power outages across the country. Tavanir has initiated a campaign to combat these activities by offering rewards to those who report them. In 2022, 9,404 illegal mining devices were seized in Tehran alone within six months.
Last Sunday, after the US bombed Iran's Fordow nuclear facility built into the mountains, Bitcoin's hashrate dropped by 27.9%. This decline fueled speculation on social media that Iran was mining Bitcoin in the mountains. However, some mining firms like Blocksbridge Consulting opposed this theory, stating that short-term hashrate fluctuations can be misleading.
Ahlawat stated that nuclear facilities like Fordow have sufficient electrical infrastructure, but said there is no definitive evidence that mining is taking place there. However, if it exists, he said such an operation would be carried out by the Iranian government or its affiliated institutions.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stands out as the institution with the largest mining power in the country. According to Easton, the IRGC could be the largest Bitcoin miner in Iran. However, the government's history of concealing mining activities makes it difficult to obtain accurate data in this area.
As a result, it is not clearly known how much Bitcoin Iran has earned to date. The main reason for this is that approximately 85% of mining activities have gone underground and the government does not report these activities transparently. However, for many Iranian citizens, crypto mining is one of the rare ways they can make a living in a high inflation environment.
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