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Stablecoin Giant Tether to Shutter Uruguay Bitcoin Mining Operation
Stablecoin issuer Tether is halting its Bitcoin mining operations in Uruguay. The firm, which issues USDT, the third biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, said it made the decision to leave the South American country due to high energy costs.
Local media reported that El Salvador-based Tether had confirmed to Uruguay's Ministry of Labor and Social Security that it was laying off 30 of its 38 employees in the country. The firm also confirmed the exit to Cointelegraph.
Back in September, local media reported that Tether—which in October reported $10 billion in profit for the first three quarters of 2025—was in a dispute with Uruguay's government-owned power company UTE over a $5 million debt.
Tether issues USDT—the most-traded digital coin in the crypto world, and the third-biggest digital asset with a $184.4 billion market cap. The token is dubbed a digital dollar: It is backed by reserves, according to Tether, that keep it at a 1:1 par with the US dollar. Cantor Fitzgerald, previously headed up by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's, currently custodies billions of dollars in assets that back Tether.
S&P Downgrades Tether's USDT Stability to 'Weak' Due to Bitcoin Backing Concerns
Traders in the crypto world can use USDT to quickly enter and exit digital transactions like Bitcoin buys. But Tether also wants to be the world's biggest Bitcoin miner, according to its CEO Paolo Ardoino.
South American countries have been eyed up by Bitcoin miners due to their cheap energy. The crypto mining industry requires huge data centers full of expensive computers that use large amounts of electricity to process transactions on the blockchain and mint new tokens.
Tether is making further inroads into Latin America after relocating to Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador in January. The company bought a majority stake in South American agricultural firm Adecoagro in March.
"Throughout its history, Tether has never refused a redemption request from a verified user," it added.
The firm's CEO, Paolo Ardoino, wrote on X Wednesday that Tether wasn't upset about the rating.
"We wear your loathing with pride," he said. "The classical rating models built for legacy financial institutions historically led private and institutional investors to invest their wealth into companies that, despite being attributed investment grade ratings, collapsed, pushing worldwide regulators to challenge such models, the independence and objective assessment of all major rating agencies."
A Tether spokesperson told Decrypt that USDT adoption was increasing as more people find use cases for the token.
Stablecoins have in the past lost their peg to the dollar. In 2023, USDC, the fourth-most-traded cryptocurrency by market cap, dropped in value to 87 cents per token after the company behind the token, Circle, announced it had cash reserves that back the asset held at Silicon Valley Bank, which was shut down by California financial regulators after a bank run.
And in 2022, crypto project Terra blew up after its algorithmic UST stablecoin failed to keep its stable peg, leaving a $40 billion black hole in the crypto industry—and causing a number of bankruptcies in the space.
This article has been published in Decrypt via Yahoo News.
Stablecoin Giant Tether to Shutter Uruguay Bitcoin Mining Operation
USDT stablecoin issuer Tether is halting its Bitcoin mining operations in Uruguay due to high energy costs, local media has reported.
finance.yahoo.com
