Thai authorities on Friday raided an illegal Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility in Ratchaburi, a town west of Bangkok, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday. The raid came after several residents in the area complained of frequent power outages for over a month.
Jamnon Changwon, the district's security chief, said:
“We found a bitcoin mining rig, which suggests that there are people using this house to mine and use electricity that they are not paying for in full.”
Changwon said records showed the homes he searched consumed unusually large amounts of electricity, but the residents had not paid for much of it.
Changwon said authorities visited the house in question on Thursday but were denied entry by security guards, after which they returned the next day with a search warrant.
During the search, police and Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) officials discovered that most of the mining equipment had already been relocated.
The house that was searched had been rented by the company for four months, but residents began complaining about power outages last month, when mining operations were supposedly at their peak.
No arrests were made during the raids, but this was the fourth time authorities have conducted raids on illegal bitcoin mines in the Ratchaburi area.
Illegal Bitcoin Mining on the Rise
In Thailand, Bitcoin miners are treated as manufacturers and are subject to relevant taxes, but illegal mining activities have been on the rise in recent years not only in Thailand but across Southeast Asia.
A report published by the Malay Mail last month attributed illegal mining operations to theft of electricity worth $723 million between 2018 and 2023. To curb the epidemic, Malaysian authorities have destroyed more than $1.2 million worth of bitcoin mining equipment seized from illegal operations.
Thailand is implementing cryptocurrency regulations aimed at promoting innovation while protecting investors, with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand starting to allow retail investors to buy digital assets backed by real estate and infrastructure projects.
However, the increasing number of illegal mining cases in Thailand indicates that stricter enforcement of the law is needed.
