Thai officials raid illegal Bitcoin mine in Ratchaburi

Thai authorities raided an illegal Bitcoin mining operation in Ratchaburi, west of Bangkok, after residents were fed up with constant blackouts that had been going on for over a month. On Friday, cops and officials from the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) hit a house in Ratchaburi town. 

The house was suspected of being used as a front for a secret Bitcoin mining setup, which was draining more power than a small village but paying only peanuts for it.

Jamnong Chanwong, the district’s chief security officer, said: 

“We found Bitcoin mining rigs, and it was clear that the people running this mine were not paying their electricity bills in full.”

According to Chanwong, the house’s electricity consumption was off the charts, but the payments made were a joke. Bitcoin mining is notorious for guzzling electricity, thanks to the heavy-duty computers needed to mine the cryptocurrency. 

In Thailand, miners are supposed to be taxed like manufacturers, but many have been dodging the system for years, running illegal operations under the radar.

Chanwong revealed that the raid didn’t go down without some hiccups. On Thursday, his team tried to enter the house, but a guard at the door refused them entry. The next day, they returned with a search warrant in hand, but by then, most of the mining equipment had already been moved out. 

This wasn’t the first time they had raided an illegal Bitcoin mine in Ratchaburi this year—it was the fourth. The house, rented by a company for about four months, likely became fully operational around mid-July, which coincides with the start of the blackouts that had the locals up in arms. 

Surprisingly, no arrests were made during the raid, and it looks like the people behind the operation managed to slip away. 

Thailand ranks 10th globally in cryptocurrency adoption, with roughly 21.9% of the population dabbling in digital currencies. The COVID-19 pandemic only fueled this trend, especially with Bitcoin hitting record highs. 

The country also became a hotspot for NFTs in 2021, leading the world in NFT users. The Thai crypto market is supported by a range of exchanges and financial institutions that are getting deeper into Web3 technologies.

Meanwhile, the government is also rolling out initiatives to keep the economy ticking, like the $12.4 billion digital cash scheme they’ve dubbed the “Digital Wallet.” 

This initiative will give cash handouts to low-income earners, which could push digital currencies further into the mainstream and strengthen the crypto ecosystem in Thailand.

Despite the country’s love affair with crypto, Thailand hasn’t given cryptocurrencies the legal tender status. Under the Royal Decree on Digital Asset Business, they’re labeled as “digital assets,” which means they can be issued, traded, and exchanged—but only by licensed operators. 

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set up a comprehensive regulatory framework that lifted investment limits for retail investors in digital tokens backed by real estate or infrastructure.