Cryptocurrency miners in Malaysia stole at least 3.4 billion ringgit ($722 million) worth of electricity between 2018 and 2023, the country’s energy officials said.
Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, deputy minister for energy transformation and water resources conversion, told local news website Malay Mail on Wednesday that illegal cryptocurrency mining activities were becoming more widespread. Reported.
“Cryptocurrency miners steal electricity because they believe that this activity cannot be detected because there are no meters in the buildings,” the official said. “However, energy companies have various methods to detect abnormal energy consumption in a particular area.”
The deputy minister made the remarks at an event where the government disposed of 2,022 confiscated items worth RM2.2 million, including bitcoin mining equipment seized by authorities in October 2022.
According to the report, the official said prioritizing the fight against electricity theft was a key focus for his ministry, adding that increasing green and renewable energy production was also important.
Cryptocurrency mining operations are expanding from China, which banned all cryptocurrency mining activities in 2021, to other regions including the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, and Thailand. Reported Last month, Southeast Asian countries were attractive to miners because of their competitive electricity prices, skilled labor and existing infrastructure, local miners told Bloomberg.
Since the Bitcoin halving in April, many Bitcoin mining companies have tried to increase their profits and mining capacity. The halving reduced miner rewards by 50%.
University of Cambridge data As of January 2022, the United States is the world’s largest Bitcoin producer, accounting for 37.8% of the global hashrate (the amount of computing power required to mine the bitcoin). Malaysia is among the top 10 Bitcoin producers, accounting for about 2.5% of the global share.
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