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Tether Uruguay mining collapse raises scrutiny for Brazil pilot
In Uruguay, a power-allocation dispute led Microfin to stop paying bills in May 2025, with the utility cutting power on July 25 and Tether later notifying labor authorities it would cease operations.
Tether’s abandoned Bitcoin mining venture in Uruguay is casting a shadow over the stablecoin issuer’s next renewable-energy related mining effort in Brazil, according to CryptoSlate.
The Uruguay project unraveled after Tether’s local entity, Microfin, and the state utility UTE disagreed over electricity terms. Microfin viewed its contracted allocation as a minimum expandable by agreement, while UTE treated it as a maximum, and the dispute was underway by late 2024.
CryptoSlate reports that Microfin stopped paying power bills in May 2025, notified UTE the following month it planned to terminate the contracts, and later failed to complete revised terms. UTE disconnected the sites on July 25, and by November Tether had notified labor authorities it would cease operations and lay off most staff.
CryptoSlate says the Uruguay spending figure cited by a former contractor was about $120 million across two sites, with roughly $60 million per site, and that the estimate was not a confirmed loss disclosed by Tether. The Brazil plan tied to Adecoagro was announced as a memorandum of understanding for a 230 MW pilot using about 10 MW of surplus renewable energy, and the article notes the disclosures do not prove Tether changed the Brazil project because of Uruguay.
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