Malaysian authorities has destroyed crypto mining equipment which was seized from people who were illegally mining crypto and at the same time using stolen electricity.
Authorities in Malaysia destroyed Bitcoin mining equipment worth more than $1.2 million after seizing them for operating illegally.
Police in the city of Miri on the island of Borneo and the Sarawak Energy business organized for a steamroller to run over 1,069 Bitcoin (BTC) miners, according to a video broadcast today by a local news site DayakDaily.
Between February and April, the rigs were allegedly recovered from Malaysian people who were attempting to illegally mine the cryptocurrency using stolen electricity.
According to a Friday article in the Malaysian newspaper The Star, the mining machines, valued at $1.26 million, were disposed of today at the Miri district police headquarters.
Three homes in the area were burned this year as a result of illegal Bitcoin mining, according to authorities, and the Sarawak Energy firm lost an estimated $2 million as a result of the operations.
It’s unclear why Malaysian authorities decided to destroy the miners rather than try to salvage some of the parts. Officials in Iran, Turkey, and other countries where crypto mining is prohibited or limited have been raiding illegal crypto mining operations for some time, with arrests, fines, and the seizure of the rigs common outcomes.
However, there are few, if any, stories of the devices being crushed or destroyed in this manner by a steamroller. In February, Chinese authorities reportedly auctioned off more than 2,000 rigs seized for identical reasons.
Malaysia provided 3.44 % of Bitcoin’s total monthly hashrate in April, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. The country consumes more than 147 terawatt-hours of energy every year.