Cryptocurrency mining could soon be phased out of another Asian giant, Iran. An official from Tavanir, the Iranian state-run company responsible for the supply and distribution of power within the country, has sounded a warning for crypto-miners.

According to an Iranian news outlet, Iran Front Page [IFP], Tavanir’s Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, on June 23 said that in the month of May, the country’s energy consumption shot up by 7 percent, stating that the ‘main cause’ for the same was Bitcoin miners’ excessive energy costs.

Using the national grid for the mining of cryptocurrencies is “illegal,” and if these culprits continue to use the grid to mine Bitcoin and other digital assets, their “power will be cut off,” he added.

Mashhadi added that the commensurate amount of electricity consumed by a “Bitcoin mining machine” was equivalent to the energy consumption of 24 dwellings. He said that the Iranian administration had yet not confirmed the tariff on digital currency mining power consumption.

Electricity is one of the few utilities within the country that is subsidized. This is one of the reasons why activities like Bitcoin mining consumes so much electricity, mining being a highly energy-intensive activity. Additionally, this rise is concentrated in residential areas, rather than industrial hotbeds.

Interestingly, earlier this month, Iran’s Financial Tribune had quoted the Deputy Energy Minister of Iran, Homayoun Haeri, who stated that digital currency miners should be presented with electricity bills based on “real prices” of consumption. Haeri had added that power exports should be kept in mind when these consumption costs are calculated.

Finally, the report highlighted that Tehran pays $1 billion annually to circumvent the pay gap between real electricity costs versus the actual amount charged to customers.

Given the extensive computation and hence, energy costs of cryptocurrency mining, several countries are clamping down on domestic mining industries. China, home to the largest mining pools in the world, tabled a proposal to ban all forms of cryptocurrency mining citing extensive energy consumption.

The National Development and Reform Commission [NDRC] had announced plans of banning mining of all forms of digital assets, reinstating its long-held view of converting to a clean energy-producing country. This, coupled with the government’s ongoing crackdown of the domestic cryptocurrency industry, is seen by some as serving the best of both worlds.

However, with the decline of Chinese miners and the crackdown on Iranian ones, other countries might emerge as alternatives. Mati Greenspan, Senior Market Analyst at eToro opined that these “alternatives” could be Russia or Canada.