2021-7-18 16:27 |
A recent report reveals that Malaysian authorities are sweeping out illegal Bitcoin miners in the country. According to the report, 297 Bitcoin machines have already been seized. The authorities also raided multiple premises involved in the stealing of power to mine Bitcoin (BTC/USD).
A police officer from Serdang town, Mohammad Rosdi Daud, stated that cops carried out raids in three different premises, leading to the arrest of two Chinese nationals. Daud said,
We arrested two Chinese nationals, a man and a woman, aged 32 and 38.
He further mentioned that the arrested foreign nationals were acting as caretakers of the premises used for in-house BTC mining operations. The police officer added that the premises have been used for mining Bitcoin for over a month using the power they secured illegally.
Destroyed mining rigs are worth $1.2 millionThe mining rigs destroyed are worth an estimated $1.2 million. It’s not clear why they destroyed the rigs outright instead of trying to reap more value.
Three houses in the area, according to authorities, were destroyed this year because of their illegal Bitcoin mining activities. They also noted that the mining rigs used about $2 million worth of energy from the operations, which is a big loss by the Sarawak Energy company.
Malaysia has intensified efforts to get rid of miners who are using powers sources in their operations without the necessary authority to do so. Apart from Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, and other countries where mining is banned are also cracking down on miners. The authorities have frequently carried out raids, which have resulted in seizures, fines, and arrests in some cases.
In February, Chinese authorities auctioned over 2,000 rigs that were seized from illegal Bitcoin mining. China has completely banned crypto mining in the country, but fully supports the launch of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Malaysia has an annual energy consumption of 147 terawatt-hours. It contributed about 3.44% to Bitcoin’s total monthly hashrate in April, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance estimates.
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