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In broad daylight, law enforcement officers raid a warehouse on the outskirts of the city of Sukhumi in Abkhazia, a Russia-backed breakaway Georgian region. No one's there; no drugs or weapons either. Only a large cooling cabinet containing dozens of electronic devices. This is a cryptocurrency mine.
A video of the raid was posted in December by the Abkhaz press service, one of many it has posted to YouTube since 2021. Crypto mining is banned in Abkhazia, yet for years this energy-intensive industry has flourished, attracted by the region's cheap hydropower.
For Abkhazia, it comes at a cost. The region typically faces seasonal power shortages as water levels drop in the winter, but they have become more disruptive because of crypto mining, which is sucking up electricity 24 hours a day.
What's happening in Abkhazia is extreme but it's indicative of a global trend. The crypto industry, while always volatile, is booming and is hungry for power. "Electricity is the largest cost input to crypto," said Theresa Sabonis-Helf, an energy security professor at Georgetown University.
To get their hands on it, many miners — both illegal, like those in Abkhazia, as well as legally-operating companies — are looking to places where they can tap into cheap electricity, often those with plentiful renewables. Experts warn it can come at a cost for local people, exacerbating shortages and diverting clean energy.
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