Tether has walked away from an estimated $120 million bitcoin mining buildout in Uruguay. The state utility cut power to its sites after a contract dispute went unresolved, The Block reported, citing Reuters.
At issue was how much electricity the two mining sites in Uruguay’s Florida department could draw. Tether read the contracted amount as a floor, something to raise later. UTE, the state-owned utility, treated it as a hard ceiling. Both sides circled a revised contract. Then Tether’s representatives failed to appear for the signing, according to meeting notes obtained by Reuters.
UTE cut power on July 25, 2025. Roughly five months later, on Nov. 25, Tether notified Uruguay’s labor authorities that it would end operations and lay off most of its staff.
A source with knowledge of the deal put the company’s spending at around $120 million. Tether never disclosed the figure publicly.
Two former contractors told Reuters the sites ran well at first and generated income. As electricity demand climbed, the operation sometimes went days without enough power.
The unraveling tracked a change in government. Yamandú Orsi took office in March 2025 and later installed new directors at UTE. The new leadership took a harder line on contract negotiations, according to a former contractor and another source. Tether’s Uruguayan legal entity, Microfin, stopped paying electricity bills two months after the transition. It told UTE in June 2025 that it intended to terminate its contracts.
The timing is awkward. CEO Paolo Ardoino told The Block’s Big Brain podcast in June 2025 that Tether would become the “biggest bitcoin miner out there” by year’s end. At that point the company said it had invested more than $2 billion in energy and mining infrastructure across 15 sites in Uruguay, Paraguay, and El Salvador. UTE disconnected the two Uruguay sites one month after the claim.
A former contractor described Uruguay to Reuters as a “first step” and a testing ground before Tether expanded into Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. Crypto mining specialist Nicolas Ribeiro was blunter. “Uruguay isn’t viable for mining,” he told Reuters. He added that the industry is “extremely dynamic,” with operators frequently opening, closing, or relocating sites.
Tether announced its Uruguay operation in May 2023, calling the country the “perfect platform” for its renewable electricity and established grid.
The company has kept spending elsewhere in the region. It acquired a 70% stake in renewable energy producer Adecoagro and later signed an agreement to use the company’s surplus electricity for mining. It released an open-source mining operating system in February 2026, took an 8.2% stake in mining finance firm Antalpha in April, and began developing modular mining systems with Canaan and ACME Swisstech the same month.
Tether’s USDT stablecoin has around $183 billion in circulation, per Reuters. The El Salvador-based company employs a few hundred people and values its investment portfolio at about $20 billion. Most of its more than 100 investments have not been publicly disclosed.
Tether did not respond to requests for comment from either Reuters or The Block. The fate of the mining hardware at the two Florida department sites is not stated in the reporting.
Holders, as ever, are divided.
