Police in Kosovo Seize Crypto Mining Rigs From Serbs

Kosovo police have seized dozens of crypto mining gadgets from residents of a majority Serb area within the north of the nation. Authorities in Pristina and Belgrade exchanged accusations over the transfer, which has the potential to lift tensions within the ethnically divided, partially acknowledged Balkan state.

Kosovo Government Cracks Down on Crypto Mining in Mainly Serb North

Law enforcement in Kosovo has carried out raids towards cryptocurrency mining in a northern municipality the place Serbs type the vast majority of the inhabitants, the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported, quoting a member of the Albanian-led authorities in Pristina.

According to Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli, police have seized 174 gadgets designed to mint digital currencies. Announcing the operation in Zubin Potok on social media, she insisted that the failure to pay electrical energy payments encourages such unlawful actions.

Consumers within the predominantly Serb northern part of Kosovo haven’t paid for electrical energy in over 20 years. Serbia doesn’t acknowledge the unilaterally declared independence of the territory, the remainder of which is generally inhabited by ethnic Albanians.

Belgrade says the crackdown is an try to impress Serbs to escalate tensions within the breakaway area. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija underneath Serbia’s authorities highlighted that the raids had been performed on Good Friday, a holy day for Orthodox Christians, describing the police operation as a continuation of the harassment of the Serbian individuals.

Serbia is portraying the operation as one concentrating on Serbs, in response to Blerim Vela, the cupboard chief of Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani. “The Serbian government openly supports criminal activity in northern Kosovo and tries to present it as an attack on local Serbs,” he was quoted as stating.

Pristina halted the extraction of cryptocurrencies all through Kosovo in January 2022, citing destructive results of the worldwide power disaster, and renewed the ban in August, seizing a whole lot of crypto mining machines final 12 months. It has been reported that the entire of unpaid electrical energy and water payments in 4 Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo exceeds €300 million (nearly $330 million).

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