Tether's $120M Bitcoin Mining Venture in Uruguay Falls Apart

Tether’s plan to build a bitcoin mining foothold in Uruguay has unraveled after a disagreement with the country’s state-run power utility over electricity supply, according to a Reuters investigation.

The stablecoin issuer invested roughly $120 million across two mining sites in rural Uruguay beginning in 2023, viewing the country as a launchpad for broader South American mining operations.

Energy dispute derails the project

The core problem was a contractual disagreement with state utility UTE over how much power Tether’s local entity, Microfin, was entitled to draw.

Tether believed the contract set a minimum supply that could later be increased, while UTE treated it as a hard cap.

As mining demand grew, the sites were left without sufficient electricity for days at a time, a former Tether contractor told Reuters.

The dispute worsened after a new left-leaning government took office in March 2025 and appointed new directors at UTE who took a harder line on renegotiation.

Microfin stopped paying its electricity bills in May 2025 and told UTE it would terminate its contracts the following month.

UTE cut power to the mining sites on July 25, 2025, and Tether told Uruguay’s labor authorities in November that it would cease operations.