Authorities in Thailand seize 1, 000 Bitcoin workers as a result of the robbery of light

A Bitcoin mining operation is thought to have stolen roughly$ 3 million worth of electricity, according to Thai police.

Authorities estimate the activity, located in the Phanat Nikhom city of Chonburi in eastern Thailand, involved upward of 1, 000 systems.

Although authorities were unable to provide an exact number for the robbery, it was possible for “hundreds of millions of ringgit,” according to English-language Thai media outlet The Nation. At the time of writing, one hundred million baht is worth about$ 2.9 million.

The miners allegedly tampered with the provincial provincial electricity authority ( PEA ) power meter to divert power for their machines. According to , an unnamed employee at the site reported telling police that the electricity theft merely occurred at night and that the power meter was used properly during the day to avoid being discovered.

Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division ( CSD ), alongside the PEA, has seized 996 Bitcoin mining machines and other devices from the site. The CSD stated it has not yet identified the business or people accountable for the operation but did request jury subpoenas for their imprisonment.

The news comes in response to various other instances of Bitcoin miners committing widespread electricity theft in the nation. In the area of Samut Sakhon in May, Thai police seize nearly 69 million baht worth of equipment from a second improper Bitcoin mining activity.

After tampering with light feet to produce false readings and stealing thousands of baht worth of light, Bitcoin workers in Bangkok’s Tha Muang city were shut down in October. In November, nine illegal Bitcoin mining farms in southern Thailand were dismantled for stealing over €270, 000 ($ 278, 000 ) worth of electricity.

Thailand continues to be a comparatively small player in the global cryptocurrency miners sector despite several instances of serious theft of electricity. Cambridge University’s Judge Business School estimated in 2022 that Thailand accounted for only 0.97 % of the world’s Bitcoins production. It lags way behind big players like Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United States.

This kind of theft of electricity is also common in other East Asian regions. According to a Malaysian government official, Bitcoin miners, who are drained of electricity from 2018 to 2023, have lost as much as$ 754 million ( RM3.4 billion ) to the country.

This kind of fraud is common in the West as effectively.

In 2021, a British man was jailed after stealing £32, 000 ($ 44, 000 ) worth of electricity to mine Bitcoin at two sites in Leicestershire.