Malaysian authorities have formed a joint task force to use high-tech drones and police on the ground to find and shut down nearly 14,000 illegal Bitcoin mining rigs, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Drones hover over buildings looking for heat signatures, while police on the ground scan areas with sensors to detect illegal electricity use. Neighbors often called to complain about strange noises, only for police to find the cryptocurrency mining equipment.
State-owned utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) recently reported that illegal cryptocurrency miners have stolen $1.1 billion from the national grid since 2020.
“The risk of allowing such activities to take place is no longer theft,” said Akmal Nasrallah Mohd Nasir, deputy minister of energy and water transition and chair of the group. “In fact, you can even damage our facilities. This poses a challenge to our system.”
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Malaysian consumers will spend an average of approximately US$1,940 per year on food by 2023. This US$1.1 billion is enough to meet the basic food needs of more than 567,000 people in Malaysia throughout the year. In addition, this is enough to power about 373,000 average households in the Asian country for a year, according to estimates from Universiti Utara Malaysia.
This is not the first time Malaysian authorities have announced a crackdown. In May, the number of electricity thefts surged by 300% between 2018 and the end of 2024, resulting in the closure of nearly 2,400 illegal Bitcoin mining operations.
TNB did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
