{"id":5955,"date":"2026-09-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/stolen-electricity-is-powering-illegal-crypto-farms-across-the-globe\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T21:00:00","slug":"stolen-electricity-is-powering-illegal-crypto-farms-across-the-globe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/stolen-electricity-is-powering-illegal-crypto-farms-across-the-globe\/","title":{"rendered":"Stolen Electricity is Powering Illegal Crypto Farms Across the Globe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Electricity theft is a global problem, and it\u2019s getting more dire all the time. While the problem is most common in developing countries, where grid infrastructure is limited and utilities and state authorities have lower oversight capacities, developed countries are not immune either. This theft can occur in many forms and at many scales, from individuals tapping into power lines to power their individual residences to large-scale and sophisticated theft schemes to power entire cryptocurrency mining farms.<\/p>\n

Just this week, Mexican authorities busted<\/a> a clandestine operation in rural Puebla, where 300 computers were using stolen electricity to mine cryptocurrency around the clock. The operation was siphoning electricity from a federal hydroelectric complex, and could be connected to a larger money laundering operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis activity consumes a great deal of energy and generates a lot of noise, which is why operators seek out isolated and very remote locations. That is what alerted us,\u201d Francisco S\u00e1nchez, head of Puebla\u2019s Public Security Secretariat, recently told reporters. \u201cWe had been tracking reports that this activity was taking place in that part of the state, particularly because of its proximity to the [Nuevo Necaxa] dam. There was a very large power connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Police authorities say that this operation is just one of many similar illegal ventures in Puebla and other neighboring states in central Mexico. Mexico\u2019s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) is spearheading a nationwide crackdown<\/a> on electricity theft, which has become an increasingly grave issue. Based on the most recent available data, from January and July 2024, 6,346 GWh of losses were reported due to electricity theft, meter tampering and illegal connections. This amounts to a loss of approximately 13.8 billion pesos (about $817 million). It\u2019s safe to assume that the numbers for 2025 and 2026 are considerably higher.<\/p>\n

Mexico is not alone in this fight. Electricity theft to power cryptocurrency mining operations occurs globally, in rich countries like England<\/a> as well as developing nations. But the problem seems to be particularly acute in Southeast Asia. Malaysian authorities, for example, have initiated their own crackdown on illegal Bitcoin mining operations, which stole approximately $1.1 billion worth of electricity<\/a> from state-owned energy company Tenaga Nasional from 2020 to 2025. Over that time period, the Malaysian police force recorded a stunning 14,000 illicit Bitcoin mining sites across the country. And the problem is not limited to financial fallout \u2013 it also poses a critical threat to Malaysia\u2019s energy security.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk of allowing such activities to happen is no longer about stealing,\u201d Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, the deputy minister of energy transition and water transformation, was quoted by Bloomberg late last year. \u201cYou can actually even break our facilities. It becomes a challenge to our system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, global authorities are reporting that cryptocurrency mining schemes are increasingly interlaced with organized crime. \u201cCryptocurrency mining is not inherently criminal, but authorities are increasingly finding links between illegal crypto mining, online gambling, money laundering, and Southeast Asia’s industrial-scale cyber scam networks,\u201d DW reported<\/a> last month. In Cambodia, crypto has been linked with forced labor operations, while in Kyrgyzstan (sometimes known as Cryptostan for the number of mines exploiting the nation\u2019s subsidized energy rates) police report that \u201cvirtual assets are being folded into the country\u2019s criminal infrastructure like cyber fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, [and] the concealment and movement of illicit funds.\u201d Meanwhile, in Mexico, it is speculated<\/a> that Bitcoin might be at the bottom of a multiple homicide of a rock star and his entire family.<\/p>\n

For every operation that is discovered and shut down there are many more that continue to fly under the radar, especially in poor countries that are the least equipped to detect theft \u2013 and that can afford it the least.<\/p>\n

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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