Over a thousand Bitcoin mining machines have been steamrolled in Malaysia amid allegations that the owners used stolen electricity to power their rigs.
According to a report by local publication The Star, Malaysian authorities confiscated 1,069 Bitcoin mining rigs and used a steamroller to destroy the machines at a police station in the city of Miri.
According to the report, eight people have been arrested in connection with the Bitcoin mining operation which is alleged to have siphoned electricity worth around $2 million from electric utility company Sarawak Energy.
Six of the arrested have been successfully charged and fined approximately $1,900, according to Miri’s Assistant Commissioner of Police, Hakemal Hawari.
A video of the steam roller flattening the mining rigs in Miri has garnered over 300,000 views in a span of three days. The video was posted by Malaysian publication Dayak Daily.
According to the report, the steamrolled mining rigs were collectively worth about $1.26 million.
Says Hawari,
“The electricity theft for mining Bitcoin activities has caused frequent power outages and in 2021, three houses were razed due to illegal electricity supply connections.”
Per the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, as of April, Malaysia was the fourth-largest Bitcoin mining country in the world by hash rate after China, the United States and Russia.
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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Mark Agnor