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Bitcoin miners targeted by Venezuela in latest cryptocurrency crackdown
Venezuelan authorities have launched a crackdown on cryptocurrency miners in a bid to protect the South American nation’s electricity grid.
In an Instagram post on Friday, the country’s Department of Energy (Spanish acronym: MPPEE) She said which would disconnect all mining operations from the country’s national electricity system (SEN).
Miners they are needed to help Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are working as expected. Such operations are often large warehouses full of computers that use enormous amounts of energy to mint new digital coins and keep a crypto network secure.
However, such operations have been criticized by lawmakers around the world for the amount of energy they consume.
The MPPEE said in its post that the move was made in an effort to “avoid high demand impacts” on the network and to allow SEN “to continue to offer efficient and reliable service to all the Venezuelan people.”
The post contained a video of authorities raiding what appears to be cryptocurrency mining operations.
Venezuela, which has experienced a devastating economic collapse since 2010, has long suffered from problems with its grid. Although the problem is not as bad as before in 2019some rural areas of the country are still subject to blackouts.
Last September, the Venezuelan police broke in a prison where inmates ran secret Bitcoin mining operations. And in early 2023, the country’s regulator launched a crackdown on miners.
Despite this, the country continues to favor cryptocurrencies: state oil company PDVSA reportedly wants to use digital assets USDT trading its crude and fuel exports as a way to circumvent US oil sanctions, Reuters reported last month.