Bitcoin News
By Julie Binoche
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Electricity Theft Charges, Not Mining Charges. Crypto mining itself is legal in Mexico. That's the tricky part.
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A Dam, a Union, and a Pattern of Raids. The Nuevo Necaxa dam keeps coming up. A mining farm near the same dam was apparently discovered…
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Mexico Isn't Alone in This Fight. The global picture is messy. Malaysia ran a major operation — authorities there seized over 75,000…
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Mexican federal prosecutors moved fast. Working alongside the Navy and Puebla state police, they hit a crypto mining site in Tlaola — a small municipality of roughly 20,000…
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The haul wasn't just rigs. Authorities pulled GPUs, transformers, medium-voltage terminals, and satellite internet antennas from the site.
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Crypto mining itself is legal in Mexico. That's the tricky part. Prosecutors can't go after the act of mining — so they're going after the power theft instead.
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Sánchez also said the investigation isn't stopping at Tlaola. Similar activity has been spotted in neighboring areas, and searches are expanding.
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The Nuevo Necaxa dam keeps coming up. A mining farm near the same dam was apparently discovered last year, and that operation was allegedly tied to properties connected to the…
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In 2025, authorities dismantled three other mining operations across Puebla and the neighboring state of Tlaxcala. So the Tlaola bust is part of a broader crackdown, not a one-off.
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The Federal Electricity Commission has been tracking the damage. Its numbers are pretty staggering — non-technical losses from theft and illegal connections hit 6,346 gigawatt…
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See also: Mexican Court to Hear Shocking Bitcoin Murder Case of Four Victims
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The global picture is messy. Malaysia ran a major operation — authorities there seized over 75,000 rigs tied to power theft valued at $1.1 billion.
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The math makes sense, if you're a criminal. Hydroelectric dams produce cheap, abundant power. Remote dam infrastructure often has weaker physical security than urban substations.
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Mexico's grid losses aren't all from crypto miners, to be clear. But the Commission's report specifically calls out illegal connections as a major driver of those losses, and the…
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The involvement of the Navy in this particular raid is worth noting. It's not a standard agency for domestic electricity theft cases.
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