From Contraband to Cash Flow? Paraguay To Mine Bitcoin With 30,000 Seized Rigs
Paraguay’s state‑owned electrical energy monopoly, Administración Nacional de Electricidad (ANDE), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with infrastructure agency Morphware to launch a authorities‑run Bitcoin mining program powered by 1000’s of confiscated mining machines and surplus hydroelectric energy.
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In a primary‑of‑its‑sort transfer, Paraguay state energy firm is about to turn into a Bitcoin miner. ANDE has signed a proper settlement with Morphware to to construct a state‑run mining program that makes use of two issues the nation already has in abundance: seized mining rigs and low-cost hydroelectric energy from the Itaipú dam.
In observe, ANDE will host and personal the mining operations. As a substitute of exporting that vitality at low, treaty‑outlined costs, the utility will route a part of it into Bitcoin mining services it controls. Morphware will act as a technical advisor moderately than a speculative companion: according to Morphware founder and CEO Kenso Trabing, as a result of ANDE has no expertise mining Bitcoin, the corporate’s function will probably be “an advisory one.
The pilot part will plug in about 1,500 seized miners at present utility buildings positioned subsequent to substations, which will be transformed into primary mining services with air flow, transformers, distribution models, and correct metering.
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Seizing Background
This determination follows a collection of nationwide raids since early 2024, as ANDE moved in opposition to unmetered and fraudulent excessive‑voltage connections utilized by unlawful miners. Many of the machines going into this program have been seized between Might and June 2024, when authorities intensified inspections in mining hotspots.
In Salto del Guairá alone, ANDE confiscated 2,738 mining rigs after detecting an unmetered excessive‑load connection value roughly 1.1 billion guaraníes (round 146,000 {dollars}) in stolen energy each month, alongside dozens of comparable operations that pushed the full stockpile of seized ASICs near 30,000 models.
One other State Turning To Bitcoin
Paraguay’s transfer slots right into a small however rising group of states that seem like attempting to show vitality coverage into hash charge. El Salvador has already folded Bitcoin into its official toolkit, pointing geothermal power from state‑run plants into mining facilities and including these cash to a authorities‑managed BTC stockpile alongside its “volcano bond” ambitions, as reported by our sister website Bitcoinist. Additional east, Bhutan’s sovereign wealth fund has quietly operated hydro‑powered mining since not less than 2019, utilizing surplus electrical energy from its dams to build up Bitcoin on the dominion’s stability sheet and, more recently, to back new digital‑asset and “mindfulness city” projects.
Paraguay’s ANDE–Morphware experiment is the hydro‑wealthy, Latin American model of that very same playbook: preserve the vitality home, personal the infrastructure, and let the state, not simply personal miners, seize the upside.
BTC's worth tendencies to the upside on the every day chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview
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