Malaysia Plans Crackdown on Bitcoin Miners Amidst Illegal Mining Surge
- The government of Malaysia intends to put a halt to crypto miners’ power theft.
- Nasir made these remarks earlier on Wednesday when his ministry sold off confiscated items.
The government of Malaysia attributes the region’s exorbitant power bills on Bitcoin ( BTC ) mining. According to Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, the country’s power supply was depleted by cryptocurrency miners to the tune of $722 million (RM3.4 billion) from 2018 to 2023.
He made it clear that Bitcoin mining was bad for Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional Berhad ( TNB ). Nasir said that Bitcoin mining is on the rise, adding that this is due to the fact that miners believe their actions are anonymous.
Halt to Power Theft by Miners
They think they can get away without installing meters, so that’s what these miners do most of the time. This is obviously not the case, since there are a variety of ways that energy supply firms might identify regions with unusually high or low energy use.
The government of Malaysia intends to put a halt to crypto miners’ power theft in order to achieve this goal. Nasir made it very apparent that the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation considers this a top priority. This is on the forefront of helping the nation cut its carbon footprint by increasing its use of renewable energy sources.
At the same time, the government has started to tighten down on illicit mining. Nasir made these remarks earlier on Wednesday when his ministry sold off confiscated items in Balakong that were associated with power theft and electrical equipment that did not have security certifications from the Energy Commission (ST).
There were 2,022 items confiscated in the disposal, including Bitcoin mining devices. All things considered, the overall value of the products was RM2.2 million, or around $468,000.
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