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A new rather unusual trend has emerged in Iran, the latest cryptocurrency news show. In the midst of a war between the Trump-led administration and the nation of Iran, the country’s internal squabbles with the crypto sector have no end. A social media post by Oxford University researcher Mahsa Alimardani shows that Iranians mine crypto in mosques, using free energy.

Amid the recent government crackdown, the cryptocurrency miners from Iran decided to resort to running their operations directly from the religious centers. The reason behind this is simple – Iranian mosques enjoy free energy and are now used to create speculative assets.

While Iranians mine crypto in mosques, the mosques don’t pay for energy in Iran. With Islam being the dominant religion in the country, the laws of the religion and leaders are respected. Last year, the altcoin news showed the efforts by the government to provide religious centers with free energy. In exchange for that, religious leaders had to ensure that they were used for their intended purposes only.

At this point, crypto was getting massive adoption in the Islamic nations. When the government ruled to declare crypto mining as a separate industry within the economy, the ship has sailed. Iranians mine crypto in mosques and it seems like this is a trend now, social media posts share.

Mosques receive free energy in Iran. Iranians have set up Bitcoin miners in them. There’s around 100 here, producing around $260,000 USD a year. This money goes a long way in Iran’s choked sanctioned economy. https://t.co/fczwdqCPAd

— mahsa alimardani 🌒 مثلا (@maasalan) June 26, 2019

As many best cryptocurrency news sites noted, the country did not anticipate the increase in mining activity as well as the toll it would take. In December 2018, there were reports from the Atlantic Council showing that Iranians mine crypto more and more and that the industry is booming – so much that miners were making profits despite the sanctions from the West and the crypto winter.

However, not everything is smooth in the country regarding the crypto mining now. Things began to deteriorate this week and government officials started seizing mining equipment. As one report shared in the coming altcoin news showed, an official at the Iranian Ministry of Energy revealed that there had been a 7% upsurge in electricity consumption only in June this year.

He also said that he thinks the fact that Iranians mine crypto is the main reason for that – adding that going forward, the government will identify miners and cut them off the power supply until both parties can come to a reasonable agreement over the pricing for mining activities.