That is on average 40 units per farm. But how many were 400 unit facilities and how many were 2 miners in someone's back room?
I would think that the ratio would be 1 large farm and one thousand home miners. Once you go over 100 units (we're talking asics), I doubt you'll be able to hide that even while claiming your activity is something else, the 24/7 linear consumption is a clear giveaway.
And the same stands for small miners that think with 1-2 units they won't get detected mining at home, 1 s9 burns 900kwh a month the median in Iran is 300, they would be picking them up faster than finding Waldo.
But did you see this:?
While the licensing regime has allowed dozens of mining entities to operate legally in the Islamic Republic, the government has raised their electricity rates to match export prices. Since April, authorized miners are charged 16,574 rials ($0.39) per kilowatt-hour, four times the initial tariff. At the same time, illegal crypto farms use subsidized energy intended for households and other industrial sectors.
Who the hell would be mining legally there?
Isn't crypto currency a way Iran could circumvent international sanctions? It doesn't seem like a very good move on their part.
Again with this, Iran could be using anything to avoid sanctions, it's that companies don't want to deal with a country under sanction so Boeing won't sell them planes no matter what they use, rials, bitcoin, coal, or cow dung, at the same time some Chinese companies could accept anything dollars or rubles or rupiah or cow dung as they are not afraid of being cut from the western world since they don't deal with those in the first place.