Malaysian officials have established a joint task force utilizing advanced drones and on-ground police to locate and dismantle nearly 14,000 illegal bitcoin mining rigs, as reported by Bloomberg on Thursday.
Drones are dispatched to search buildings for thermal heat signatures, while the police utilize sensors on the ground to detect unauthorized electricity consumption. Local residents frequently report unusual noises, leading authorities to discover crypto mining operations.
Tenaga Nasional (TNB), the state-owned utility company, recently revealed that illegal crypto miners have pilfered $1.1 billion from the national grid since 2020.
“The danger of permitting such activities extends beyond theft,” stated Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, the deputy minister responsible for energy transition and water transformation, who leads the panel. “It poses a potential threat to our infrastructure.”
The $1.1 billion lost could meet the basic food requirements for over 567,000 individuals in Malaysia for an entire year, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, indicating that the average Malaysian spends about $1,940 on food annually in 2023. Furthermore, it could supply electricity for a year to roughly 373,000 typical households in the nation, based on estimates from University Utara Malaysia.
This isn’t the first crackdown announced by Malaysian authorities. In May, it was reported that electricity thefts increased by 300% from 2018 until the end of 2024, prompting the closure of nearly 2,400 illegal bitcoin mining facilities.
TNB did not respond promptly to CoinDesk’s inquiry for comments.
UPDATE (Dec. 4, 13:35 UTC): Includes Bloomberg attribution in the headline.
