Argentine Tax Authority AFIP Strengthens Oversight, Finds Three Secret Cryptocurrency Mining Farms – Bitcoin News Regulation

The Argentine Tax Authority (AFIP) found three different clandestine cryptocurrency mining farms last week. The farms were located in San Juan and in the city of Cordoba. More than $600,000 in hardware was found in just one of these locations, and the high level of power consumption helped the agency track these farms.

Argentine tax authorities discover three different clandestine crypto mining farms

The Argentine Tax Authority (AFIP) has set its sights on the business of illegal cryptocurrency mining and has already discovered three clandestine cryptocurrency farms in the past week. Two of the farms were located in the city of Cordoba, and one in San Juan. The last one was identified by the organization because the import of mining equipment was carried out by a company that did not have a license.

The two farms in Cordoba were discovered thanks to the high electricity consumption that these farms need to operate. According to the authorities, the mining operation used 85,000 kilowatts of energy each month, at a cost of $7,000. One of the companies operating the farms had undeclared profits of more than $200,000, with $600,000 invested in mining hardware.

In the procedure carried out in the province of San Juan, the Argentine tax authority was able to discover the cryptocurrency address that received crypto mined in the operation. The equipment was located in a cold chamber designed to store fruit. In an official statement, AFIP explained:

One of the disrupted companies had made 474 transactions in the Ethereum (ETH) virtual currency data chain from January 31 to date, for which they had received 137.25 units of that asset, equivalent to $217,000, which was undeclared.

Mining Boom in Argentina

According to analysts, the activity of cryptocurrency mining has become a lucrative business in Argentina due to the cheap and relatively stable energy supply and the presence of high-speed Internet. This has even put the country in the sights of international cryptocurrency companies looking to establish their operations on Argentine soil.

One of these companies is Bitfarms, a Nasdaq-listed mining conglomerate that is already building a megafarm in the country that will allow it to operate 55,000 miners, to expand its mining capacity to reach its 8 exahashes per second (8 EH/s) by the end of this year.

However, the country began eliminating subsidies for power given to cryptocurrency mining companies in February, with Cammesa, the energy wholesaler, quadrupling power charges for these operations.

What do you think about the recent discovery of three secret cryptocurrency mining farms in Argentina? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price spike occurred during December 2017. He has a computer engineering background, lives in Venezuela and is influenced by the cryptocurrency boom on a social level, offering a different point of view on crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

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