Malaysia Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners Behind $1.1B Electricity Theft

In brief

Malaysia launched a special committee in November to target mining operations stealing power.
Around 14,000 illicit operations have been discovered in the country over the past five years.
Thailand also shut down a large mining operation linked to scam networks this week.

Malaysian authorities are using drones and handheld sensors to crack down on Bitcoin mining operations stealing power from the grid, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.

Last month, Malaysia launched a special committee made up of staff from the Ministry of Finance, Bank Negara Malaysia and TNB to target illicit actors.

The move is the latest in a series by authorities to rein in illegal mining, including a crackdown in May this year that shut down almost 2,400 operations. Among them was the seizure of 45 rigs in the northeast of the country. In February, an explosion at a house in Bandar Puncak Alam city also revealed an illegal operation.

Over the past five years, authorities have discovered 14,000 illicit mining operations in the country, with theft from the national power grid accounting for around $1.1 billion in losses.

Companies have set up rigs across the country in a variety of locales, from a former logging yard in Sarawak to an incomplete shopping mall overlooking the Strait of Malacca, according to Bloomberg.

Bitcoin mining is legal provided power is obtained properly and taxes are paid, but some operators are skirting these requirements.

However, Wolfie Zhao, head of research at TheMinerMag, told Decrypt that power theft in Malaysia is a longstanding issue that isn’t only limited to Bitcoin mining. “That said, mining does make it more lucrative, and these cases have been around for years,” he said.

“You can find local news reports dating back to 2019, if not earlier—including the well-known incident where police crushed thousands of confiscated Bitcoin miners with steamrollers.”

Beyond crackdowns, preventing illicit mining it is proving difficult. “In most cases, operators tamper with meters and come up with clever ways to disguise their usage,” Zhao added.

“Power companies typically only detect it after noticing irregularities between billed amounts and actual consumption over time.”

Other Southeast Asian nations have also been making moves against illegal mining. This week, Thailand shut down an $8.6 million Bitcoin mining operation linked to “Chinese scam networks” which consisted of 3,462 rigs across six locations. And in September, two individuals were arrested in Hong Kong for siphoning electricity from care homes for the disabled to power cryptocurrency mining rigs.