Overview
- Tether’s local unit Microfin has effectively left two mining sites in Uruguay after a buildout that a former contractor estimated cost about $120 million.
- The core dispute centered on a contract figure that Tether viewed as a minimum expandable allocation while the state utility UTE treated it as a fixed maximum.
- Microfin stopped paying electricity bills in May 2025 and UTE cut power to the sites on July 25, 2025 after revised terms went unsigned.
- Tether told Uruguay’s labor authorities in November 2025 it would halt operations and lay off most staff, and Microfin settled the outstanding UTE debt in December 2025.
- The episode follows the April 2024 Bitcoin halving and highlights a wider industry move to more efficient mining hardware, cheaper power locations, and using reliable grids for AI and high‑performance computing.