Tether's $120 Million Uruguay Mining Bet Crashes Over Power Dispute

Tether's $120 million Bitcoin mining project in Uruguay has collapsed due to a dispute over electricity contract terms. The company, behind the USDT stablecoin, invested heavily in two mining sites in the country's Florida department, but was unable to agree on power costs with state-owned utility UTE.

The disagreement began when Tether read the electricity contract as allowing for increased power allocation as demand grew, while UTE treated it as a hard ceiling. The dispute intensified after President Yamandú Orsi's left-leaning government took office and installed new leadership at UTE in March 2025.

With bills unpaid and power costs too high to keep the mining operation competitive, UTE cut electricity to both sites on July 25, 2025. The shutdown eliminated 30 of Tether's 38 local jobs, according to Teledoce.