The Kosovo government announced a ban on cryptocurrency mining on Tuesday to curb power consumption as the country faces its worst energy crisis in a decade due to production interruptions.

The Minister of Economy and Energy Artane Rizvanolli said in a statement: “All law enforcement agencies will cooperate with other relevant agencies to stop the production of this activity, and these agencies will determine the location of the production of cryptocurrency.”

Due to the low electricity prices in Kosovo in recent years, many young people in Kosovo have participated in cryptocurrency mining. Faced with power outages in coal-fired power plants and high import prices, the authorities were forced to implement power outages last month.

European natural gas prices soared by more than 30% on Tuesday after Russia’s insufficient supply. As the weather turns cooler, concerns about energy austerity have once again been raised.

In December, Kosovo declared a state of emergency for 60 days, which will allow the government to allocate more funds for energy imports, introduce more power outages and stricter measures. An unnamed miner who owns 40 GPUs (Processing Units) told Reuters that he paid about 170 Euros (approximately Rs 14,300) a month for electricity and received about 2,400 Euros (approximately Rs. 14,300) from mining. 20 lakh rupees) profit.

Coin mining is on the rise in northern Kosovo, most of which are Serbs who do not recognize Kosovo and refuse to pay for electricity.

This country with a population of 1.8 million now imports more than 40% of its energy, and there is a great demand in winter when people use electricity mainly for heating.

Approximately 90% of Kosovo’s energy production comes from lignite, which is a soft coal that produces toxic pollution when burned.

Official data show that Kosovo has the world’s fifth-largest lignite reserves, at 1.2-14 billion tons.

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