The number of electricity robberies discovered in Malaysia shot at 300% between 2018 and 2024, mainly due to the increase in illegal cryptographic mining, the star reported Monday.
The cases were detected in joint operations that included the Nasional Berhad Nasional Electricity Company (TNB), the Energy Commission and the largest police in the country.
“Joint operations and national raids have successfully closed the illegal mining configurations, contributing to an increase in cases detected from 610 in 2018 to 2,397 in 2024,” said the public services company in a statement to the star.
Crypto Mining is the process of discovering new blocks, verifying transactions and adding them to the block chain that supports digital assets. The process, especially for work test blockchains, such as Bitcoin, is intensive in energy, provides an incentive for unscrupulous miners to rob, instead of paying, for the electricity they use while harvesting the reward in the form of new tokens to complete the process.
The largest jump in the numbers occurred after 2020. Between 2020 and 2024, the average number of cases of electricity theft related to cryptography was 2303 per year, TNB told The Star. The number of public complaints also increased due to greater awareness about how to inform the TNB of illegal cryptographic mining added.
Cryptographic mining is not prohibited in Malaysia, but any person who manipulates electrical installations is subject to a fine of 1 million ringgit ($ 232,720.50) and up to 10 years in prison.
Coendesk contacted Nasional Berhad for a comment.
