Malaysia's latest move is pretty tough. The local government deployed a joint air-and-ground team—high-tech drones conduct surveillance from the sky, while police on the ground carry out raids, specifically targeting Bitcoin mining farms that steal electricity.

The numbers are pretty alarming: since 2020, these mining operators have siphoned off $1.1 billion worth of electricity from the national grid. In this operation alone, nearly 14,000 illegal mining machines were seized. The national power company Tenaga is probably fed up with being robbed, and this time they responded quickly to cooperate with law enforcement.

To be honest, Southeast Asia has attracted quite a bit of gray-market mining in recent years due to cheap electricity. But when it comes to electricity theft, no government takes it lightly. Malaysia’s use of drone patrols this time is really efficient—previously, relying on manual inspections made it almost impossible to find mining farms hidden in the mountains. Now, a quick thermal scan immediately reveals any locations with abnormal electricity consumption.