Tether Exits Uruguay Bitcoin Mining on Energy Costs, Cuts Local Staff

Tether is pulling out of Uruguay’s Bitcoin mining scene, citing prohibitively high electricity costs. The USDT issuer confirmed to Uruguay’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security that it will wind down operations and lay off 30 of its 38 local employees. The company also acknowledged the exit to Cointelegraph and did not immediately respond to separate requests for comment.

The decision lands awkwardly against Tether’s stated ambition to become the world’s largest Bitcoin miner. The signal here is not about appetite—it’s about power pricing precision. Mining margins live and die by the shape of the power contract: fixed vs. indexed rates, curtailment rights, uptime guarantees, and who bears volatility. In September, local media flagged a $5 million dispute between Tether and state utility UTE; in October, Tether reported $10 billion in profit for the first three quarters of 2025. That asymmetry matters. Walking from a venue over a $5 million bill when you can afford it suggests the contract economics and governance friction made the hashrate simply not worth defending.

Uruguay, like many South American markets, often attracts miners with the promise of cheap energy. The catch is predictability. ASIC fleets require stable baseload and clear curtailment rules; ambiguous terms turn “cheap” into expensive fast. State-controlled utilities can change the calculus with policy shifts, seasonal dynamics, or billing interpretations that miners can’t hedge easily. When you’re integrating power procurement into a global, multi-asset balance sheet, you pick battles you can scale—consistency beats headline cents per kWh.

This retreat doesn’t touch Tether’s core franchise. USDT remains crypto’s most-traded token and the third-largest digital asset, with a market capitalization around $184.4 billion. The “digital dollar” maintains a stated 1:1 peg backed by reserves; Cantor Fitzgerald currently custodies billions of dollars in assets supporting those reserves. Traders use USDT to move in and out of positions—including Bitcoin—at exchange speed. That utility is insulated from any single mining site’s economics.

Contextually, Tether has been deepening its Latin American footprint. It relocated to Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador in January and acquired a majority stake in South American agricultural firm Adecoagro in March. Those moves show a willingness to commit capital regionally, but the Uruguay pivot underscores a bias toward shutting down underperforming power sites rather than forcing scale in the wrong venue.

What I’ll watch next: - Where the hashrate goes: expect redeployment to jurisdictions offering firm, long-duration PPAs with explicit curtailment compensation and grid services revenue. - Counterparty mix: partnerships with independent power producers over state monopolies can improve alignment on uptime and pricing corridors. - Balance sheet optics: continued separation between reserve management for USDT and capital-intensive mining helps quell concerns about risk bleeding across businesses.

Bitcoin mining is an execution game masquerading as an energy trade. Tether’s exit from Uruguay reads less like a retreat from mining and more like a refusal to anchor its strategy to a power contract it can’t control.