Tether Uruguay Has to Leave Because of High Tariffs

• Tether, the company that makes the USDT stablecoin, has shut down its Bitcoin mining site in Uruguay.
• The main problem is that energy costs are going up, which made operations too costly.
• This ends plans for a $500 million investment in the country.

At first, Tether started mining Bitcoin in Uruguay because energy prices were low there. There is a lot of renewable energy in the country from wind and water, which seemed like a great place to mine crypto. Mining uses a lot of power to solve math problems and get Bitcoin. Tether wanted to use this setup to back its stablecoin with real things, like Bitcoin. But things changed quickly.

Talks with the government of Uruguay about lower energy prices fell through. Tether said that the tariffs, which are the costs of electricity, got too high and rules made it hard to keep going. They had to fire almost all of their workers there. Even though Tether denied rumors of a shutdown earlier this year, this happened. Now that it’s real, operations are stopping right away.

This move shows how hard it is for crypto businesses to work in Latin America. When Bitcoin prices go up and down, the cost of energy can make or break mining. The case of Uruguay shows that even places with green energy have problems when prices aren’t competitive. Some other miners might not want to set up shop there.

Tether isn’t giving up mining completely. They’re looking at Paraguay and El Salvador because energy might be cheaper there and the governments are more open to crypto. Bitcoin is even used as money in El Salvador. This change could help Tether safely build up its reserves.