Venezuela has announced plans to disconnect all Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining facilities from the national electricity system in order to control energy demand.
The Ministry of Electric Energy (MPPPE) announced the initiative on Friday, which includes a plan to monitor high energy users participating in this activity.
“The goal is to disconnect all cryptocurrency mining facilities in the country from the National Electricity System (SEN), preventing the high impact on demand and thus enabling us to continue providing an efficient and reliable service to all Venezuelan people,” MPPPE said in a statement on its Instagram account. said.
The measures were announced after at least 2,000 cryptocurrency mining machines were seized on Thursday in Maracay, Aragua state, about 120 kilometers southwest of Caracas.
According to local media reports, this action is linked to an anti-corruption operation launched by the Venezuelan government last year, which resulted in the arrest of dozens of officials from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the National Inspectorate of Cryptocurrencies (Sunacrip) and other state institutions.
Since last year, Sunacrip has been under the control of a restructured board following the arrest of Chief Inspector Joselit Ramírez, who was linked to former Oil Minister and former PDVSA President Tareck El Aissami. El Aissami's arrest was announced by the prosecutor's office early last month.
El Aissami was accused of “treason, seizure of public property, verification of relationships or influence, money laundering and organization.”
Carabobo state governor Rafael Lacava stated that they restricted cryptocurrency facilities, which he said consumed a significant amount of megawatts, which led to power outages.
There has been an electricity crisis in Venezuela since 2009. Due to major outages in 2019, many cities were left without electricity for seven days.
*This is not investment advice.
