Tether Uruguay Bitcoin Mining Farm reported "owing a large amount of electricity fees" and has stopped mining. The official response: in talks with the government.

Tether's $500 million mining project in Uruguay has been terminated due to high electricity prices and unpaid bills, showcasing the dual narrative of the rapid adoption of the US dollar stablecoin in Latin America. (Background: Tether announces that the password management tool PearPass will soon launch in all stores, operating in an open-source and localized manner.) (Background information: Tether aims to engage in "real mining" by investing in the gold mining industry, currently holding $8.7 billion in gold reserves.) The stablecoin issuer Tether is playing out two entirely different narratives in Latin America: on one side is the $500 million Bitcoin mining project in Uruguay, which hoped to leverage renewable energy but was shut down due to unpaid bills, and on the other side is the rapid expansion of the US dollar stablecoin in payment and savings scenarios in the region. The contrast highlights that energy costs and demand for the US dollar have become a dividing line for the blockchain industry in South America. From high-profile launches to forced shutdowns In November 2023, Tether announced the launch of a $500 million mining project in Uruguay, intending to utilize local hydroelectric advantages to expand its business. Less than a year later, noise began to surface. According to a report from Uruguayan media Busqueda in October 2023, Tether was embroiled in a dispute with the state-owned electric company UTE over an unpaid bill of $4.8 million, with monthly electricity costs reaching $2 million. Tether subsequently stated on Monday that the content was "inaccurate," emphasizing that they were still in negotiations with the government. The direction of this mining project reversed in the summer of 2025. On the 25th, UTE cut off power to the Florida and Flores mining sites due to unpaid electricity bills since May. Even though both parties signed a memorandum of understanding in June, the bills remained unresolved, and Tether ultimately decided to withdraw and seek other locations. High electricity prices become an invisible killer The core of the issue lies in Uruguay's high electricity prices. Data indicates that local industrial electricity costs range from $60 to $180 per megawatt hour, significantly higher than neighboring Paraguay's level of about $22. As early as 2018, Bitcoin miner Vici Mining relocated its equipment from Uruguay to Paraguay due to cost considerations. Engineer Nicolás Ribeiro stated at the time: "Looking at global average electricity prices, Uruguay remains high. 80% of Bitcoin mining costs come from electricity, and location decisions are nearly tied to this factor." Tether's lesson from Uruguay reaffirms the "priority of electricity prices" strategy, as it maintains computing power in Paraguay while seeking cooperation with Brazilian renewable energy providers. The boom of the US dollar stablecoin in Latin America In contrast to the setbacks in mining, demand for the US dollar stablecoin has risen in Latin America. As Bolivia's dollar reserves shrink, car manufacturers like Toyota, Yamaha, and BYD have started accepting USDT payments; in Colombia, MoneyGram's crypto payment app has added a savings feature for US dollar stablecoins to combat the depreciation of the peso. For most local residents and businesses, dollar-linked tokens provide a unified channel for hedging, cross-border transactions, and remittances. Tether's Uruguayan mining site has turned from boom to bust, highlighting the extreme sensitivity of energy-intensive industries to electricity prices; at the same time, Latin American countries' dependence on the US dollar remains unchanged, making stablecoins an alternative financial infrastructure. Hardware computing power and soft payment write two curves on the same continent, also indicating that if blockchain companies want to establish themselves in the region, they must simultaneously calculate kilowatt-hours and inflation points. Ultimately, Tether's story reminds the market: renewable energy does not equal low-cost electricity, and the value of stablecoins may not stem from high technology, but from a precise response to basic economic needs. Related reports Standard Chartered warns DAT digital asset vault: narrative heading towards a death spiral, multiple mNAVs falling below 1. Poor stock performance and declining purchasing power: has the cryptocurrency vault model reached its end? OpenSea announces the launch of the "NFT reserve vault," purchasing CryptoPunk #5273 to protect digital asset culture. "Tether's Uruguayan Bitcoin mining site is reported to have 'large unpaid electricity bills' and has halted mining, with an official response: in discussions with the government." This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.