Five years after the first big numbers surfaced, electricity theft remains Malaysian crypto's most stubborn problem.
Bukit Aman has disclosed that Tenaga Nasional Berhad suffered RM441,600,089.90 in losses from electricity theft by illegal bitcoin-mining operations between 2020 and September 2024. A total of 2,091 joint raids were conducted nationwide over the period.
The year-by-year picture
| Year | TNB losses | Raids |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | RM5.92 million | 54 |
| 2021 | RM140.45 million | 529 |
| 2022 | RM124.96 million | 692 |
| 2023 | RM67.17 million | 358 |
| 2024 (Jan–Sep) | RM103.09 million | 458 |
The 2023 dip proved temporary — the first nine months of 2024 already exceed the whole of last year. Separate Bernama reporting covers state-level losses, including nearly RM30 million in Melaka, and later government statements put cumulative losses since 2018 in the billions of ringgit.
Same message, louder
The association's position hasn't changed since 2019: mining is legal; meter tampering is theft, it burns down premises, and it poisons the well for operators pursuing legitimate, contracted power supply. As long as stolen electricity is the industry's most visible output, every legitimate miner pays the reputational bill.