LUNGILE MASHELE: Energy-rich African countries open doors to crypto miners

There is never a shortage of people ready to pillage and plunder Africa, and in 2025 it’s the crypto miners. With the pressure on crypto miners to “go green”, many of them are looking for countries that have cheap hydro and lax regulations.  

As global demand for digital assets intensifies, Africa has rapidly become a new frontier for crypto mining operations. The continent’s abundant solar and untapped hydropower offer an alluring promise of low-cost, renewable energy, precisely the resource sought by mining firms eager to appease environmental concerns while maximising profits.

Yet in the scramble for green energy these ventures often operate in regulatory grey zones, raising questions about oversight, economic benefit and energy equity. This influx of crypto miners is not just a story of technological progress, but one of competing interests, shifting policies and the delicate balance between innovation and exploitation. 

The International Energy Agency estimates that data centres, cryptocurrencies and AI consumed about 460 terawatt-hours of electricity worldwide in 2022, almost 2% of total global electricity demand. They forecast that electricity consumption from data centres, AI and the cryptocurrency sector could double by 2026. 

Electricity is the largest cost input to crypto, and as the hardware requirements for crypto mining become larger and more powerful the required electricity consumption also increases. This growing appetite for energy-efficient solutions is reshaping the global landscape of crypto mining, prompting a wave of regulatory responses and new approaches to what is now dubbed “green crypto mining”. 

Green crypto mining describes mining practices that aim to decrease the carbon footprint typically produced by mining activities by using energy from renewable sources. Miners prefer geothermal, hydro, wind or solar energy rather than depending on the conventional power grid. 

China once hosted the majority of crypto miners — commanding 73% of the global market. However, in September 2021 the People’s Bank of China officially prohibited all cryptocurrency transactions. They attributed this decision to concerns regarding cryptocurrencies’ potential involvement in financial crime and the increasing risks they pose to the stability of China’s financial system due to their speculative nature.  

Until 2022 Kosovo boasted one of Europe’s cheapest electricity tariffs, but with the impact of the Russian Ukraine conflict resulting in high electricity prices, Kosovo banned crypto mining after severe blackouts in the country. In 2021 Iran announced a four-month ban on crypto mining because it was consuming more than 2GW from the grid each day. Angola (a hydro-rich country) has also banned crypto mining activities to protect the country's energy security. 

Meanwhile, countries such as Zambia and Ethiopia have opened their doors to crypto miners because they have the cheap hydro required to make crypto mining profitable. Ethiopia’s newly completed Grand Renaissance Dam has boosted the country’s energy supply, enabling it to make notable gains from selling electricity to the cryptocurrency mining industry.  

An executive from Ethiopian Electric Power explained that 18% of its monthly sales come from crypto mining, up from nothing a year ago. This accounts for more than all of Ethiopia’s power exports to its neighbours. This in a country where only 55% of people are electrified. 

As more of these crypto mining companies come to Africa we will need to have conversations about ownership, energy security, cybersecurity, land allocation and local economic development. Crypto tax audits aside, we need to see regulation and policy targeting crypto mining and its energy use. 

Crypto mining can come at an untenable cost for local people, worsening electricity shortages, diverting energy and land use. Crypto mining raises several ethical concerns about who will benefit and who will always be in the dark. 

• Mashele, an energy economist, is a member of the board of the National Transmission Company of SA.