Malaysian authorities formed a joint task force using high-tech drones and police on the ground to find and shutdown nearly 14,000 illicit Bitcoin mining rigs, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday.
Drones hover over buildings, searching for thermal heat signatures, while police on the ground scan areas with sensors that detect illicit electricity use. Neighbors often call in complaining of strange noises, only for police officials to find crypto mining rigs.
State-owned utility company Tenaga Nasional (TNB) recently reported that the illegal crypto miners have stolen $1.1 billion from the national grid since 2020.
“The risk of allowing such activities to happen is no longer about stealing,” said Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, the deputy minister of energy transition and water transformation, who chairs the panel. “You can actually even break our facilities. It becomes a challenge to our system.”
That $1.1 billion is enough to fund the basic food needs for over 567,000 people for a full year in Malaysia, based on U.S. Department of Agriculture’s figures that the average Malaysian consumer spent approximately US$1,940 annually on food in 2023. Alternatively, it is enough to supply electricity for a year to approximately 373,000 average-sized households in the Asian country, according to estimations by University Utara Malaysia.
This is not the first time Malaysian authorities announce a crackdown. In May, the number of electricity thefts soared by 300% between 2018 and end-2024, leading to the shutdown of nearly 2,400 illegal bitcoin mining operations.
TNB did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.