Tether, the corporate behind the world’s largest stablecoin, spent roughly $120 million on two bitcoin mining websites in Uruguay that had been in the end deserted after a dispute with the state utility over electrical energy provide, a Reuters overview of paperwork and interviews has discovered.
A “good platform” that soured
In Could 2023, Tether introduced it could launch bitcoin mining operations in Uruguay, calling the nation the “good platform” for its plentiful renewable vitality, with out disclosing an funding worth. It arrange two websites within the rural division of Florida, spending roughly $60 million on every, in keeping with a former Tether contractor.
The undertaking was meant as a “first step” for Tether’s mining push throughout South America, serving as a testing floor earlier than the corporate moved into greater markets reminiscent of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Tether has since introduced mining investments in Brazil.
The dispute over energy
The undertaking started to unravel over a basic disagreement about electrical energy with state utility UTE. Tether believed a clause in its contract represented a minimal stage of provide that might later be elevated, whereas UTE handled the contracted quantity as a most that might not be exceeded, a former contractor mentioned.
The dispute had begun by November 2024. After a left-leaning authorities took workplace in March 2025 and appointed new UTE administrators, the utility took a tougher line on renegotiating. In Could 2025 Tether’s native entity, Microfin, stopped paying its electrical energy payments and instructed UTE in June it could terminate its contracts. UTE reduce energy to the websites on July 25, and Tether instructed Uruguay’s labor authorities on November 25 that it could stop operations and lay off most employees. Microfin settled its excellent money owed in December.
Mining economics get tougher
Tether didn’t reply to requests for remark. The collapse exhibits how the essential economics of bitcoin mining — turning low-cost vitality into crypto income — have weakened after a pre-programmed “halving” of bitcoin rewards in April 2024 and a pointy drop within the cryptocurrency’s value from its 2025 peak.
Tether controls round $183 billion of stablecoin and has mentioned it invests in a portfolio price roughly $20 billion, together with vitality and mining. Pete Howson, an assistant professor at Northumbria College, described bitcoin mining’s “hypermobile” nature: “This plug-and-play infrastructure may be very straightforward to do — actually pulling the plug after which transfer it to elsewhere.”
