Bitcoin Mining in Iran w/ Masih Alavi

You’re listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 15,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Masih Alavi, CEO of ViraMiner, joins us to discuss an overlooked mecca for bitcoin mining: Iran. He estimates that miners in the country operate with just 5 MW of legal, while 2 GW of mining activity hums away in the shadows of basements, offices, and even jewelry stores. Plus, Alavi discusses how Iranian citizens use outdated mining equipment to evade sanctions, convert crypto to USD, and survive capital controls from within and sanctions from without. Alavi explains why the government’s hardline stance and tax code pushes miners underground and the ingenious methods Iranians use to hide their operations from authorities.

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

# Notes:

– Only 5MW legal mining vs. 2GW illegal in Iran

– Outdated S9 miners still profitable in Iran

– Illegal miners caught by authorities

– High tariffs push miners to operate illegally

– 18 million Iranians own crypto assets

– Iran Bitcoin hashrate dropped 10-15% during protests

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

“The Mining Pod” is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.  

Related Episodes

For today’s Blockspace Pod, Brady Dale joins us to discuss the best and worst crypto media publications for 2026.
Jan 06, 2026
For today’s roundup, TeraWulf’s Fluidstack JV bags $1.3B and David Beckham’s Prenetics abandons its BTC strategy.
Jan 02, 2026
For the final Mining Pod of 2025, we inaugurate The Hashies, Blockspace’s annual award show.
Dec 30, 2025
For today’s roundup, the Blockspace team shares their year-end 2025 rankings for bitcoin mining stocks.
Dec 26, 2025
CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti joins the Mining Pod to break down the underdiscussed ways that bitcoin ETFs have changed the crypto market.
Dec 23, 2025
This week in bitcoin mining news, hiccups surface in AI site development and funding, and China crackdown on bitcoin mining in Xinjiang.
Dec 19, 2025
Coinbase Asset Management’s hashrate loans allow miners to borrow against their entire mining facility.
Dec 16, 2025
100 EH/s of bitcoin mining hashrate is under pressure by the CCP in China’s Xinjiang region.
Dec 15, 2025
This week in bitcoin mining news, ERCOT sees a 266 GW of interconnection requests in 2026, IREN closed a $2.3 billion convertible note offering, and GPUs are leaving ASICs in the dust.
Dec 12, 2025
Now, listen here

Get updates on new episodes and a whole lot more

By subscribing, you agree to the Blockspace Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.