Ethiopia has ended its freeze on licensing Bitcoin mining companies, paving the way for the growth of cryptocurrency operations in the country. The move signals government support for digital asset development and investment in blockchain technology.

Addis Ababa

Ethiopia has ended a freeze on bitcoin mining, enabling thousands of servers near Addis Ababa to use surplus electricity generated by the country's dams, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The government reports that miners have paid approximately $220 million in fees over the past year, with these funds intended to support the expansion of the national electricity grid.

Officials stress that bitcoin mining is a temporary solution until wider access to electricity is achieved for the population and domestic industries. The cost advantage of cheap Ethiopian electricity makes mining highly profitable compared to other regions. As global interest in digital assets grows, Ethiopia's role as a crypto mining hub is expected to increase.

Ethiopia lifts freeze, opens doors for Bitcoin mining

On the outskirts of Addis Ababa, thousands of servers work on solving complex mathematical challenges that will be rewarded with bitcoins. This mining is energy intensive. Here, they're using surplus electricity from Ethiopia's dams. The bitcoin mining has a great advantage. The capability to consume a huge amount of energy, to deploy fast, and to do it very close to the source, like for example here near the substation. After many years, when the distribution grid is deployed, other industries come, probably the power will be redistributed. Ethiopia's recently inaugurated Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD, will more than double the country's electricity output. But Ethiopia doesn't yet have the distribution network to take this power to the half of the population that doesn't have electricity. The idea is that the fees paid by the bitcoin miners to use the surplus energy, some $220 million worth in the last 12 months, will go towards funding the expansion of the grid. The government had a target of 2030 for universal access to electricity, but now says meeting that will be extremely challenging. Until the people have full access and the economy starts to consume all this power, we are using bitcoin for transition. It's not a permanent endeavor. So they're not getting preference over domestic industry? No way, no way. The cost of mining one bitcoin in Ethiopia is about $20,000, when hardware, staffing and other costs added along with the cheap electricity. But that bitcoin then sells for around $114,000 at current prices. It's very profitable because 80% of the operating expenses for a bitcoin miner is related to electricity. And in parts of the European Union, they're looking at 15 or 20 cents kilowatt hour. So to come to Ethiopia and get three cents or sub four cents, I think is extremely lucrative. We'll see. For now, the price of bitcoin is climbing and has become less volatile. As more countries, notably the U.S., become more receptive to digital assets like bitcoin, then Ethiopia's appeal as a crypto mining hub is likely to grow. Bernard Smith, Al Jazeera, Addis Ababa.

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