An interesting incident regarding cryptocurrency mining occurred in Malaysia.
Malaysia’s state-run energy company Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has reported losses of $1.1 billion due to power theft by cryptocurrency miners from 2020 to August 2025, Reuters reported.
The country’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources announced in a letter to parliament that it had identified 13,827 workplaces that illegally leaked electricity for cryptocurrency mining between 2020 and August 2025.
This resulted in losses of at least 4.57 billion ringgit ($1.1 billion).
The ministry said the activities in question pose a serious threat to the country’s electricity supply system, public safety and the country’s economic stability.
It is stated that theft usually occurs in the form of meter tampering and unauthorized connections to the network.
The ministry said it has been fighting illegal cryptocurrency mining activities since 2018 to prevent soaring electricity prices, and said TNB has created an internal database of property owners and tenants suspected of being involved in electricity theft and will step up efforts to identify and track suspicious locations in the future.
Finally, the ministry said that from a technical perspective, TNB is using smart meters and has started a testing program for ‘distribution transformer meters’ to better monitor energy usage at substations and detect abnormal patterns.
*This is not investment advice.
