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Following
BTC Tether abandons Bitcoin mining business in Uruguay, and two facilities have been suspended.
Tether has withdrawn from its Bitcoin mining business in Uruguay, abandoning two facilities with an investment of approximately US$120 million. Previously, the company and Uruguay's national power company UTE had a long-term tug of war on the issue of available power quotas for mines.
The move marks the end of the USDT publisher's first attempt to enter South American mining.
Unclear contract terms cause power dispute
According to two former Tether contractors and an insider from UTE, Tether's local operator Microfin and the power company have never reached an agreement on the amount of power the mine should receive. A former contractor stated that Tether regarded a certain number in the supply contract as a minimum that could be subsequently expanded, while UTE insisted that the number was a hard upper limit.
This disagreement had little impact when the facility was small; but as the mine expanded and production capacity increased, the issue became a major obstacle. The contractor said the mine had been unable to operate for several consecutive days due to insufficient power.
An internal briefing showed that as of November 2024, the two sides had reached a deadlock.
Unpaid arrears and signed agreements
A former contractor said that after Uruguay's new leftist government came to power in March 2025, it appointed new directors to UTE, which led to a reduction in the power company's willingness to renegotiate the contract. By May, Microfin had stopped paying electricity bills; in June, the company notified UTE that it planned to terminate the contract.
Minutes from the briefing showed that the UTE board of directors had signed the memorandum of understanding and revised the document in an attempt to save the agreement, but the Tether representative ultimately did not show up to sign it. Due to no signing of any documents and arrears of approximately US$5 million, UTE cut off power supply to two mines on July 25. UTE said Microfin settled its arrears in December.
Tether's US$120 million plan for Uruguay fails
When Tether launched the project in May 2023, it called Uruguay the "perfect platform" and emphasized that the country has renewable energy and a reliable power grid. The two facilities in Florida were originally planned to serve as initial test grounds before the company expanded mining operations in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Tether's investment in each mine is reported to be approximately US$60 million.
As of the end of 2025, more than US$100 million has been invested in the project, and another US$50 million has been reserved for infrastructure that was originally planned to be eventually handed over to UTE and the Uruguay National Interconnection System. A company video in February 2024 showed that the mine factory was surrounded by farmland and wind turbines, and the access roads were named "Mempool Avenue" and "Halving Street".
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and Chairman Giancarlo Devasini have reportedly made regular visits to the resort resort of Punta del Este, where billionaire Peter Thiel is allegedly building a $10 million villa.
Uruguay's setbacks have not slowed Tether's mining ambitions across the region. The same month that UTE cut off its partnership-July 2025, the USDT issuer reached an agreement with agricultural company Aecoagro to use renewable energy to mine Bitcoin in Brazil. The failed South American test site was almost completely replaced in less than a month.
