Kosovo police have seized dozens of crypto mining devices from residents of a majority-Serb region in the north of the country. Authorities in Pristina and Belgrade traded accusations over the move, which has the potential to escalate tensions in the ethnically divided and partially recognized Balkan state.
Kosovo government cracks down on crypto mining in mainly Serb north
Law enforcement in Kosovo have carried out raids against cryptocurrency mining in a northern municipality where Serbs make up the majority of the population, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported, citing a member of the Albanian-led government in Pristina.
According to Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli, police seized 174 devices designed to mint digital currencies. Announcing the operation at Zubin Potok on social media, he insisted that non-payment of electricity bills encourages such illegal activities.
Consumers in the predominantly Serbian country North part Kosovo have not paid for electricity in more than two decades. Serbia does not recognize the unilaterally declared independence of the territory, the remainder of which is inhabited mostly by ethnic Albanians.
Belgrade says the crackdown is an attempt to provoke Serbs to escalate tensions in the breakaway region. The Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija noted that the raids were carried out on Good Friday, a holy day for Orthodox Christians, describing the police operation as a continuation of harassment of the Serbian people.
Serbia presents the operation as one directed at Serbs, according to Blerim Vela, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani’s chief of staff. “The Serbian government openly supports criminal activity in northern Kosovo and tries to present it as an attack on local Serbs,” he stated.
Pristina halted cryptocurrency mining across Kosovo in January 2022, citing the negative effects of the global energy crisis, and renewed the ban in August, seizing hundreds of crypto mining machines last year. It has been reported that the total unpaid electricity and water bills in four Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo exceed 300 million euros (almost 330 million dollars).
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