Tether's $120M Bitcoin Mining Bet Crashes on Power Contract Dispute

Tether, a privately held stablecoin issuer, invested $120 million in two Bitcoin mining sites in Uruguay's rural Florida department.

The company, which never disclosed the investment's value, initially generated revenue from operations but later faced a power dispute with Uruguay's state-owned utility, UTE.

The disagreement centered on the interpretation of a minimum supply allocation in the power contract, which Tether understood as a ceiling that could be increased, while UTE treated it as a maximum limit.

As electricity demand at the facilities increased, the sites sometimes went without sufficient power for days, exacerbating the issue.