Tether’s $120M Uruguay mining flop casts a shadow over tiny Brazil pilot

Tether’s big Bitcoin-mining experiment in Uruguay unraveled and left behind an estimated $120 million of work across two sites — and that ghost now hangs over the company’s much smaller pilot in Brazil. The Uruguay operation fell apart after the local arm and the state power company couldn’t agree on who got what electricity and when. The end result: power cuts, unpaid bills, staff exits and a messy shutdown.

The Uruguay mess — what actually happened

In short, the dispute was about power allocation. The Tether-linked local entity viewed its electricity allocation as a floor it could grow from; the state utility treated it as a ceiling. That mismatch in expectations escalated late in 2024. By May 2025 the local outfit had stopped paying power bills, a termination notice came the following month, and on July 25 the utility pulled the plug on the sites. By November the company had told authorities it was stopping operations and laying off most employees, and outstanding power bills were eventually settled in December.

Outside estimates put spending at roughly $60 million per site — about $120 million total — though that’s an outside estimate of expenses rather than an accounting figure shared by the company. The main takeaway: having lots of renewable generation nearby isn’t the same as having a reliable, contractually clear supply for a mining operation.

Brazil pilot: much smaller, but still a test

The next South American chapter involves a pilot in Brazil tied to a major agricultural-and-energy producer. Representatives toured the Uruguay sites earlier in 2025, and a memorandum of understanding for a pilot followed. But don’t be fooled by the headline number: the 230 MW figure often mentioned refers to the partner’s total renewable capacity across the region, not the amount earmarked for mining.

The actual pilot in Brazil is tiny by comparison — roughly a 10 MW setup using surplus renewable energy that would otherwise go to the spot market. There’s no public evidence the Brazil plan was redesigned specifically because of the Uruguay collapse, nor that it will run into the same problems. Still, Uruguay’s failure is a reminder: renewable juice alone won’t save a mining project. Clear contractual terms, dependable capacity and a sensible economic model matter just as much as the megawatts on paper.

So yes, the Brazil pilot is small and cautious — which, given the Uruguay lessons, might be exactly what it should be.