Icelandic Police Are Hunting for Countless Bitcoin Miners

“Everything points to this being a highly organized crime,” he said.

The theft of countless cryptocurrency miners in Iceland has now caused a collection of arrests amid an ongoing investigation.

The Associated Press reports that as many as 600 miners – which have been retrieved – were stolen through four separate events in December and January.

Officials in Iceland allegedly said the strategy to steal is the biggest in the island nation’s history.   Police commissioner Olafur Kjartannson, who works in the southwestern Reykjanes region where two of the thefts took place, said  they had been “on a scale unseen before.”

Iceland boasts a bitcoin mining ecosystem that is long-running, as a result of the data center business and access of the country to geothermal energy sources. Lately, politicians there have begun exploring the concept of taxing mining operations.

Police lights image via Shutterstock
Eleven people, such as a safety employee, have been arrested in relation to the investigation into what’s been called the “Big Bitcoin Heist.” Some of those arrested remain in custody after a Reykjanes District Court judgment, even though it is uncertain what role they supposedly played in the heists.

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That mining hardware could be a target for larceny is unsurprising, given the increase in cryptocurrency costs .   Past incidents comprise the theft of 165 miners  by bitcoin miner BTCS at a facility from the U.S. country of North Carolina in 2016.