Tax Incentives in Sweden Will Be Abolished, Crypto Mining Industry Becomes a Victim

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Sweden, one of the countries in Europe which is the last home for bitcoin miners, will remove tax incentives for data centers in July 2023. This has the potential to have an impact on the crypto mining industry in Sweden.

Reporting from CoinDesk, Tuesday (18/4/2023), energy prices in Europe have soared in the past year in large part due to the war in Ukraine, driving out bitcoin miners in various countries.

The northernmost regions of Norway and Sweden are some of the last areas where the industry is still profitable and operating even though the player has dwindled.

Sweden was originally chosen because they offered an ideal environment for data centers and home to low-cost hydroelectric power. Sweden was initially unaffected by the energy crisis, which has seen prices rise and some miners halting their operations in 2022.

Energy prices start to normalize in 2023, but the upcoming tax is likely to stop new investment in Sweden, which currently hosts around 150 megawatts (MW) of crypto mining. The tax will increase from July this year, according to the financial budget published in November 2022.

Based on last year’s average electricity price, the tax hike could bring overall energy costs up

Jaran Mellerud, a senior analyst at crypto mining services company Luxor Technologies, said the most efficient mining machine currently the MicroBT Whatsminer M30s, would be at break-even given current market conditions.

Not only Sweden, Norway, which currently accommodates 250-300 Mega Watt of crypto mining, also increased its tax from USD 0.0086 or the equivalent of IDR 127.13 (assuming an exchange rate of IDR 14,782 per US dollar) to USD 0.015 or the equivalent of IDR 221.74 per kWh in January 2023.

Disclaimer: Every investment decision is in the hands of the reader. Study and analyze before buying and selling Crypto. Liputan6.com is not responsible for profits and losses arising from investment decisions.

A number of local governments in the US welcome the thriving cryptocurrency mining industry in the country. But crypto mining requires huge amounts of electricity up to hundreds of megawatts, so several states are making new rules regarding …