$120M Tether Mining Bet Collapses in Power Dispute with Uruguay's UTE

Tether's ambitious $120 million Bitcoin mining investment in Uruguay has ended in disappointment and financial loss. The company, which had described the country as an attractive base for its renewable-energy resources and established electricity grid, abandoned its operations after a power dispute with state-owned utility UTE escalated into unpaid bills, an electricity cutoff, and layoffs.

According to Reuters, Tether invested about $60 million in each of two sites in Uruguay's rural Florida department. The company had initially generated revenue from the operations, but the relationship with UTE deteriorated over how much electricity the sites were entitled to receive. Tether understood a figure in its power contract as a minimum supply allocation that could be increased, while UTE treated it as a ceiling.

The disagreement intensified after President Yamandú Orsi's left-leaning government took office and installed new leadership at UTE. Microfin, the Uruguayan entity of Tether, stopped paying its electricity bills in May 2025 and told UTE that it intended to terminate the contracts. The utility cut electricity to the mining sites on July 25, 2025, after nearly $5 million in unpaid bills had accumulated.

The failure is notable because Uruguay's renewable energy resources initially seemed well-suited for Tether's stated strategy of linking cryptocurrency mining with clean power. However, industry specialists cited by Reuters said that Uruguay's power costs make it less competitive for mining than neighboring markets.