Georgia moves to crack down on illegal crypto mining in Mestia after dramatic power surge
The Georgian government will roll out electricity meters across Mestia as officials point to illicit crypto mining as the main cause of soaring power consumption, repeated outages and strain on the local grid.
Vice Prime Minister Mamuka Mdinaradze told reporters that illegal mining has become “one of the main energy problems” in the municipality. Mestia’s electricity consumption reportedly hit 133 million kilowatt-hours in 2025 — roughly 13 times higher than a comparable municipality, which would typically use about 10 million kWh. The government says that hidden mining operations are behind much of the excess load.
What the government will do
- Officials plan to install meters in villages and settlements across Mestia to identify precise sources of unusually large electricity use and to shut down covert mining rigs.
- Law enforcement will support the metering rollout, helping to identify large-scale theft and respond to any obstruction.
- Svaneti residents will continue to receive free electricity up to a fixed limit; users who exceed that allowance will face tariffs under the new system. Mdinaradze stressed the measures are aimed at detecting illegal, not ordinary household, consumption.
Impact and costs
Authorities blame the overload for reduced power quality and frequent outages that have affected both local households and tourism businesses in the mountain town. The government estimates annual losses from unlawful electricity use at 20–25 million lari (about $7–9.4 million), and says the extra costs are ultimately carried by energy consumers across Georgia.
Why mining congregates in places like Mestia
Georgia’s abundant hydropower and historically low electricity costs have long attracted both legal and illicit crypto miners. The country was an early Bitcoin-mining hub — Bitfury opened a 20-megawatt facility in Gori in 2014 — and recent reporting shows industrial crypto data centers still consume large shares of national power. One report put industrial data center consumption at 556 million kWh between January and September 2025.
Wider enforcement trend
Georgia’s move mirrors actions elsewhere: Thailand seized crypto rigs in 2025, and Russia has created a registry to track unlicensed miners. The key test for Georgia will be whether the new metering program can distinguish normal household use from large clandestine mining without penalizing residents who rely on free electricity within legal limits.
For the crypto sector, the Mestia operation signals growing regulatory enforcement against power theft and illegal operations in jurisdictions that were once seen as low-cost havens for miners.
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