Is bitcoin mining legal?

In the vast majority of countries around the world, Bitcoin mining is legal. Lawmakers around the world have responded to this emergent industry in various ways.

Some governments have banned mining, some want to ban it. Others see making Bitcoin mining legal as an opportunity to increase tax revenue, balance their energy grids, or stimulate investments in renewable energy.

We look at how mining is perceived by governments around the world and what laws are being developed.

Is it legal to mine bitcoin?

In most countries, it is legal to mine Bitcoin. We have visualized the status in the map below.

➤ Learn more about Bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin mining on different continents

Beyond a country-by-country basis, different parts of the world have completely different views on Bitcoin mining.

You may have heard about the Bitcoin mining ban in China in 2021 as the biggest example, which has largely proven to be unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Bitcoin mining is used to stabilize energy grids and increase the rollout of renewable energy generation.

In Europe, some regulators attempted to define which calculations a computer is allowed to make so they could ban mining, which failed.

In Africa, entrepreneurs are using Bitcoin mining to build out local energy grids by ensuring consistent demand, which lowers prices for all consumers.

Will bitcoin mining be banned?

With a lot of news and confusion around the energy used to mine bitcoin, it is common to assume that more countries will ban mining. In practice, most governments have chosen regulation over prohibition.

A ban is difficult because it requires a government to decide that people may not use computers and electricity for a specific computation. That is technically hard to enforce, especially for small or mobile operations. However, industrial-scale mining is much easier to regulate because it requires large amounts of electricity, grid interconnection, transformers, permits, land, and sometimes data-center registration.

The more common trend has been:

• Licensing miners,
• Creating miner registries,
• Taxing mining electricity,
• Restricting new grid connections,
• Requiring curtailment during peak demand,
• Regulating mining as a data-center activity,
• Banning mining in energy-stressed regions, or
• Prohibiting mining only when it uses subsidized or public-grid electricity.

China and Angola show that full prohibitions are possible. But the United States, Canada, Kazakhstan, Russia, Norway, Kosovo, and the European Union show that governments are often more focused on energy management, disclosure, and industrial oversight than on outright bans.

Reasons not to ban bitcoin mining

Beyond Bitcoin being illegal in a country, there usually aren’t many reasons why a country would want a specific ban on mining.

Some miners have tried to run illegal operations by stealing energy, but due to the electricity use involved, they generally get caught by the authorities. This in itself isn’t a particular reason to ban mining, and countries more often react to this by introducing regulations.

Miners are scavengers for excess energy that otherwise goes to waste. This excess energy is cheap enough to ensure that miners can be competitive in the global market. As a result, they rarely operate in places or ways that harm local populations and generally don’t affect energy prices that households or businesses would pay.

Bitcoin mining speeds up the transition to renewable energy

Bitcoin mining can help local communities more rapidly gain access to renewable energy. This is because miners can easily turn their operations on and off, which can help balance a grid during off-peak times. They can also set up anywhere, including in remote areas where renewable energy is abundant but expensive to transmit into a population center.

To give an example: Investors may not want to build or operate a hydroelectric dam to generate power for a small number of villages in a remote area. Either the energy cost for these communities would be too high, or the venture would not be profitable for the investors. The investors can bridge this financial gap by selling their remaining capacity to miners, who can be flexible about where they locate their operations and only use the excess energy. There are very few other businesses able and willing to relocate to such remote locations, while using very specific amounts of energy.

It would be in a country’s best interest to stimulate such investments and partnerships with miners, to accelerate the transition towards exclusively using renewable energy.

Bitcoin mining reduces the harm of non-renewable energy

Another way in which Bitcoin mining can help to reduce CO2 emissions is by using flared gas as an energy source for mining. Flared gas is a byproduct of oil extraction. Converting this methane gas to CO2 reduces the total emissions by about 63%. A June 2022 report suggested that the Oman Investment Authority is participating in a company that specializes in mining powered by flared gas, which will open an office in Oman.

Why banning bitcoin mining is hard

China was the first country to ban Bitcoin mining, which it did in June 2021. Two years later, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimates that it remains the second biggest mining hub in the world. The data suggests that these miners have access to off-grid electricity and have many geographically scattered small-scale operations to hide from authorities.

Completely banning small-scale operations is impractical. Beyond not being worth a government’s time and money to track down a relatively small user of electricity, many mining operations are indistinguishable from data centers used for other computing projects. Banning all mining operations would require complete knowledge and 24/7 monitoring of all energy users, as well as recurring, time-intensive on-site visits to verify users.

As a result, Bitcoin mining can never truly be banned, even if every country in the world would manage to coordinate on it. Time and money spent to pursue such bans might be better invested in ensuring that renewable energy use continues to grow across all industries, not just Bitcoin mining.

Recent bitcoin mining law activity

Most countries don’t have explicit laws that specify the legal status of Bitcoin mining; the majority only mention cryptocurrency in general. There are some examples where specific mining rules exist, or where attempts are being made to introduce them.

United States

Bitcoin mining remains legal in the United States, but state and grid-level regulation has increased.

At the federal level, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has tracked the electricity implications of cryptocurrency mining and estimated that U.S. mining could account for a meaningful share of national electricity use. Its 2024 discussion also noted that mining growth followed China’s crackdown and raised questions about electricity demand, costs, reliability, and emissions.

In New York, a 2022 law created a two-year moratorium on certain new or renewed air permits for proof-of-work mining operations powered by carbon-based fuel plants. That moratorium expired, and a 2025 bill to extend it was stricken rather than enacted.

In Texas, large mining facilities are increasingly treated as large flexible loads. ERCOT has voluntary curtailment arrangements with large loads, including cryptocurrency mining facilities, and Texas regulators adopted a 2024 rule requiring large mining facilities to register and report information such as location, ownership, and electricity demand.

In Arkansas, lawmakers passed Act 174 in 2024 to regulate digital asset mining businesses. The law includes restrictions on foreign-party-controlled mining businesses and enforcement mechanisms, although related litigation has limited enforcement against at least one plaintiff.

China

China remains the most important example of a national mining ban. In 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and other authorities ordered a crackdown on virtual-currency mining, prohibited new mining projects, restricted electricity support, and moved existing mining activity into a phase-out category.

The ban did not eliminate all mining. Cambridge data later showed China returning as a major source of hashrate, suggesting that covert or off-grid mining continued despite the prohibition.

Russia

In 2024, Russia created a legal framework for mining. Organizations and individual entrepreneurs may mine after being entered into the Federal Tax Service register, while individuals may mine within a monthly electricity threshold before registration is required. Miners must report mined digital currency and wallet address information to authorities.

At the same time, Russia created a process for restricting mining in power-constrained regions, and the government has approved bans or restrictions in certain territories. Russia should therefore be treated as “legal but registered, with regional restrictions,” not as fully open or fully banned.

Iran

Iran officially recognized cryptocurrency mining as an industry before 2022, but it continues to crack down on unauthorized mining, especially where miners use subsidized electricity or strain the grid during shortages.

In 2024 and 2025, Iranian authorities increased enforcement against illegal mining and offered rewards for reporting unauthorized mining equipment. Iranian power authorities have also called for action against miners using subsidized electricity.

Iran is best described as legal for licensed miners, but restricted and heavily enforced for unauthorized operations.

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan has regulated mining through virtual-asset rules, including mining certificates, registration of mining farms, and a tax tied to electricity fees.

The country has also faced an energy emergency running from August 1, 2023 through December 31, 2026. During this period, mining has been vulnerable to temporary restrictions, including a reported suspension of mining farms until March 2026 because of energy shortages.

Canada

Canada’s mining rules are mostly provincial.

British Columbia paused new cryptocurrency-mining electricity connections in December 2022 and later made the restriction permanent for certain new crypto-mining operations through its power allocation framework.

Québec applies special rules for cryptographic-use electricity. New projects of at least 50 kW are subject to Rate CB, non-firm service, connection-cost obligations, and possible curtailment. Projects of at least 5 MW require authorization from the provincial minister.

Manitoba continued a pause on new electricity-service requests for cryptocurrency operations through April 30, 2026. Because that date has now passed, operators should confirm the current status directly with Manitoba Hydro before relying on new service availability.

Sweden

In November 2021, Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency called for a total ban on Proof-of-Work mining within the EU. Their concerns were based on false assumptions that Proof-of-Work mining was a drain on other energy resources. Sweden’s state-owned power company, Vatenfall, stepped in to reject the proposal and correct the misunderstandings. The company’s head of Physical Power Management clarified that miners can help to balance the load on electric grids when the power supply varies, and that banning mining could have the opposite effect of what the policymakers want.

In May 2022, Sweden’s Central Bank began advocating for a ban of Bitcoin’s consensus algorithm known as Proof-of-Work (PoW). This advocacy contains the same errors as the calls for a ban from November 2021.

Kosovo

In January 2022, the government banned cryptocurrency mining amid a country-wide energy crisis. Under normal market conditions, a ban is unnecessary, as energy crises increase the cost of using energy, making it impossible to profitably mine Bitcoin. For example, in other jurisdictions, miners are paid to halt mining during peak energy usage; miners may also make this decision themselves.

European Union

The European Union did not ban proof-of-work mining through the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, known as MiCA. MiCA created a uniform EU regulatory framework for crypto-assets, including disclosure, authorization, and supervision rules. It entered into force in June 2023.

The EU approach has shifted toward transparency and sustainability disclosures rather than a proof-of-work prohibition. Later delegated rules specify how certain sustainability indicators and adverse climate or environmental impacts should be disclosed.

Paraguay

In May 2022, one house of the Paraguay legislature passed a bill to license miners, as Paraguay aspires to become a major Bitcoin mining hub. An amendment still needs to be approved where both corporate and individual miners would be required to apply for industrial electricity authorization before applying for a license. The bill has not yet passed the Paraguay Senate.

Kazakhstan

As of May 2022, the government required cryptocurrency miners to register their operations with the authorities. In July 2022, a new tax rate for mining was signed into law. The goal of this tax rate was to effectively raise the minimum price per kilowatt hour of electricity to 5 cents, with the gap made up by tax. At the time, this 5 cent rate was around the price that miners were globally able to pay for energy. The exception to this 5 cent rule is when renewable energy is used, produced by the mining operator. The tax in this case is 0.2 cents per kWh.

Bitcoin miners working with local authorities

Regulatory activity varies by jurisdiction, with some aimed at restricting mining and others trying to provide structure for the mining industry. Bitcoin miners who want to operate at an industrial scale will need to comply with their jurisdiction’s regulatory scheme. Miners may benefit from building clear relations with their local authorities, and keeping a clear line of communication open to ensure mining doesn’t hinder local communities.

In February 2022, miners worked with the Texas electrical grid operator ERCOT, powering down when needed during bitter cold temperatures when energy demand was exceptionally high.

Bitcoin mining and AI data centers

Artificial intelligence has changed the policy conversation around Bitcoin mining.

AI data centers, cloud computing facilities, and Bitcoin miners all use large amounts of electricity. This has made policymakers more interested in data-center registration, grid planning, and power allocation. However, governments often view AI and cloud data centers differently from Bitcoin mining because AI and cloud services are seen as more directly connected to national digital infrastructure.

Norway’s data-center strategy shows this distinction clearly. The government is investigating a temporary restriction on new data centers primarily engaged in energy-intensive crypto mining, while also emphasizing that the measure should not block data centers used for digitalization, artificial intelligence, or other socially useful purposes.

This creates both a challenge and an opportunity for miners. The challenge is that mining may face tougher political scrutiny than AI data centers competing for the same electricity. The opportunity is that miners can prove their value by being more flexible than AI data centers: shutting down during peak demand, absorbing surplus power, locating near stranded energy, or monetizing waste energy.

As electricity demand from AI grows, miners will need to explain why their load is different and how it can help grids rather than simply compete with other users.

A long road of education ahead

Policymakers around the world are considering whether and how to regulate Bitcoin mining. To make informed decisions on regulation, it helps to first to thoroughly understand why Bitcoin mining uses energy.

We expect a lot more activity in mining regulation over the coming decade. Beyond just creating rules, we hope to also see activity from policymakers to support the use of Bitcoin mining to reduce global emissions.

Disclaimer: This article is not legal advice on the legality of mining operations. Laws and regulations are constantly evolving, so make sure to consult with a professional before setting up a mining operation.