In brief
- Iran accounted for a 7.5% of the Bitcoin hashrate in March 2021, a figure that fell to 0.12% by the next year.
- Some experts estimate that Iran could have mined up to 200,000 BTC throughout its history. But others believe it’s too complicated to predict.
- Iran’s crypto mining industry is mostly underground and hard to trace, as individuals and institutions seek to avoid high electricity bills and being forced to hand over their BTC to the country’s central bank.
Iran has been mining and trading in cryptocurrencies out of necessity due to major global sanctions and a local currency that has dwindled in value due to severe inflation since at least 2019. However, experts told Decrypt it’s still nearly impossible to estimate its holdings.
The University of Cambridge’s Center for Alternative Finance estimated that the nation accounted for 7.5% of Bitcoin’s hashrate in March 2021, a figure that fell as low as just 0.12% in January 2022.
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Author: Ryan Gladwin
