Norway pulls Bitcoin mining tax break

The Norwegian government has scrapped a power subsidy for Bitcoin miners, Aftenposten reports.

Firms currently receive the same electricity tax discount as other power-intensive industries in the country. Those with a capacity of more than 0.5 megawatts are charged 0.48 øre ($0.00056) per kilowatt hour; the standard rate being 16.58 øre ($0.019).

“Norway can not continue to provide huge tax incentives for the most dirty form of cryptographic output like Bitcoin. It requires a lot of energy and generates large greenhouse gas emissions globally,” Norwegian parliamentary representative Lars Haltbrekken said.

Giga Watt

The move is yet another high profile blow to this controversial space.

Earlier this week, we reported that US crypto mining and blockchain outfit, Giga Watt, had gone bankrupt and was also facing eviction in Douglas County.

The Wenatchee World reported that the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Eastern District of Washington bankruptcy court, saying it was “insolvent and unable to pay its debts when due”. It listed assets of between zero to $50,000 and liabilities between $10 million to $50 million.

Giga Watt was founded by Bitcoin miner Dave Carlson and held an initial coin offering (ICO) in May 2017 that pulled in about $22 million worth of cryptocurrency. However, earlier this year a group of plaintiffs sued the venture for allegedly conducting an unregistered securities offering.