Malaysia's power giant TNB has incurred losses of over 1.1 billion dollars due to electricity theft from cryptocurrency mining

According to Reuters, Malaysia's national power company TNB stated that illegal electricity usage for cryptocurrency mining has caused losses of approximately $1.1 billion (about 4.6 billion ringgit) from 2020 to August this year.

The authorities disclosed that a total of 13,827 locations suspected of electricity theft were seized, with related activities involving tampering with electricity meters and illegal connections, which are violations under the Electricity Supply Act. TNB has collaborated with the police, communication regulators, and anti-corruption agencies to carry out actions, seizing Bitcoin mining machines and establishing a database of property owners and tenants involved in the case for monitoring and enforcement; at the same time, smart meters have been deployed at distribution substations to detect abnormal energy usage in real-time.