We Sit in the Dark So Bitcoin Miners Keep Running: Iran's Energy Theft Has Gone Too Far

The Cold Truth Behind Iran’s Mining Mirage

I’ve spent five years tracking chain data from Dubai to Seoul, but nothing prepared me for what I found in Tehran’s shadow economy. A country with 20% unemployment and collapsing infrastructure is powering thousands of ASIC rigs—while hospitals dim and families lose refrigeration.

This isn’t some rogue hacker ring. This is state-sponsored energy laundering. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) didn’t just enter mining—they own it. And they’re doing it on public electricity, free of charge.

You think your Bitcoin mining rig uses too much power? Try this: one single bitcoin mined in Iran consumes over 300 megawatt-hours—enough to power 35,000 homes for a day. That’s not efficiency—it’s extortion.

When Power Grids Become Private Mines

In 2019, Iran officially legalized crypto mining—under strict conditions: sell all BTC to the central bank at fire-sale prices. Sounds fair? Not when you realize that over 85% of miners were operating illegally.

But here’s where it gets spicy: those who were licensed? Usually tied to IRGC subsidiaries or religious foundations like Astan Quds Razavi—the same entities that control half the country’s religious endowments.

They don’t pay bills because they don’t exist on paper as customers. They build private substations inside military zones and claim ‘national interest’ as their shield.

And when inspectors show up? Armed guards block them.

Yes, armed guards.

One government official admitted: “We can’t shut them down because we don’t have jurisdiction.” That right there is not governance—that’s corruption with military backing.

The Real Cost of ‘Free’ Electricity

Let me put this bluntly: every kilowatt-hour stolen from Iranian households fuels someone else’s profit margin.

When summer heatwaves hit in 2024, temperatures soared past 50°C across Tehran and Isfahan. Schools closed; hospitals ran on backup generators; people stood in line for hours just to refill water tanks.

Meanwhile, mines powered by underground gas lines kept running nonstop—on subsidized fuel burned purely to generate digital coins worth $40k each.

The irony? A regime that calls itself anti-imperialist uses crypto to bypass Western sanctions—as if stealing electricity from its own people isn’t imperialist enough.

And let’s talk about numbers:

• Up to 2 GW of power consumed by unregistered miners during peak demand — equivalent to two nuclear reactors’ output.
• Over 180,000 active ASICs across Iran — nearly half owned by government-linked actors.
• Estimated $25 billion+ in annual losses due to outages and industrial downtime — paid by ordinary Iranians through inflation and job loss.

The math doesn’t lie: when you mine Bitcoin using national infrastructure without consent or accountability, you’re not investing—you’re looting.