Another nation bans crypto mining following blackouts and power shortages

The small European nation of Kosovo has become the latest nation to ban crypto mining as the power drawn from mining operations becomes too much for the nation to sustain.

Across Europe there is a surge in energy costs, and Kosovo has been particularly hard hit. Its largest coal-fired power plant was forced to suspend operations due to technical issues, meaning that the nation has had to import power at a premium. Kosovo has subsequently enforced rolling blackouts to help distribute the available power to residential and business purposes.

Bitcoin miners had previously been attracted to the tiny nation as it offered some of the cheapest energy prices in Europe. As with Iran, which had banned crypto temporarily late last year, miners had flocked to nations with cheap energy prices following China’s blanket ban on crypto mining.

Elsewhere, in the face of massive anti-government protests, the nation of Kazakhstan has had its entire Internet effectively shut down, in one of the largest “blackouts” in history. This has massive implications for Bitcoin mining, as Kazakhstan had become one of the world’s largest nations for it.