According to reports from Reuters, Tether has abandoned its Bitcoin mining project in Uruguay after an electricity supply dispute with state utility UTE left two facilities without sufficient power. The project, which had been presented in 2023 as Tether's first major Bitcoin mining venture in South America, was estimated to have cost around $120 million across two Bitcoin mining sites in Uruguay's Florida department. A former contractor told Reuters that Tether spent roughly $60 million on each of the two sites, with the company investing more than $100 million by late 2025 before laying off 30 of its 38 employees.
As reported by Reuters, the core of the failed project was a disagreement over how much power Microfin could draw from UTE. According to two former Tether contractors and a source at the state utility, Tether understood a provision in its electricity contract as setting a minimum power allocation that could later be increased, while UTE interpreted the same amount as the maximum level available under the agreement. One former contractor told Reuters that the sites sometimes lacked enough electricity to operate for days at a time, with the dispute already underway by November 2024. UTE sources said the disagreement concerned the electricity allocation available to Microfin, which operated locally on Tether's behalf.
According to Reuters, Microfin stopped paying electricity bills in June 2025 and informed UTE in June that it intended to terminate its contracts. UTE's board approved a memorandum of understanding and revised contract documents, but Tether representatives did not attend the scheduled signing. With the agreement unsigned and bills outstanding, UTE disconnected electricity to the facilities on July 25, 2025, with the unpaid balance connected to the two sites at roughly $5 million. Microfin eventually settled the outstanding debt in December, as reported by UTE to Reuters.
As reported by Reuters, Tether had initially viewed Uruguay as an entry point for a much larger regional mining operation, with the country offering political stability, established infrastructure, and an electricity system powered heavily by renewable sources. The Florida facilities allowed the company to test its mining model before committing more capital elsewhere. Despite the Uruguay withdrawal, Tether has continued investing in Bitcoin mining elsewhere, including a mining agreement with Adecoagro in Brazil in July 2025, which had more than 230 megawatts of renewable generation capacity. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the Brazil project formed part of the company's commitment to renewable-powered mining.
According to Reuters, Tether has maintained its mining investment strategy despite the Uruguay withdrawal, with Ardoino saying at an industry conference that the company had invested more than $2 billion in energy production and Bitcoin mining. Tether has also invested in mining-related companies, including retaining a 19.7% stake in Bitdeer after selling 627,000 shares for about $12.7 million. The company released MiningOS as open-source software in February 2026 and followed with an open-source Mining Development Kit in April. Tether reported $1.04 billion in net profit for the first quarter of 2026, with total assets of $191.77 billion and liabilities of $183.54 billion.
