Venezuelan authorities dismantled a large illegal Bitcoin mining operation in Maracay, confiscating about 4,000 ASIC mining machines in a coordinated raid. The enforcement action, named “Operación Cazador” (Hunter), targeted a facility in the San Vicente Industrial Zone of Maracay, in Aragua state.
The raid occurred on May 18, just 11 days after the government reaffirmed a nationwide ban on unauthorized digital mining on May 7.
Officials removed not only mining rigs but also the industrial cooling and ventilation equipment that sustained the warehouse-scale operation. Investigators estimate the site consumed roughly 8 to 10 megawatts of power.
The operation involved Venezuela’s criminal investigations police (CICPC) alongside military units REDI Central and ZODI Aragua. Representatives from the Ministry of Electric Energy were present, including Vice Minister Vianney Rojas.
Venezuela’s power grid is under severe strain: recent peak demand reached 15,579 MW, the highest in nine years. Years of underinvestment and maintenance shortfalls leave the aging system poorly equipped to absorb the extra load created by large-scale mining farms, increasing pressure on authorities to act.
Crackdowns on unauthorized crypto mining are not new. The government has shifted between tolerance and enforcement over time, systematically dismantling illegal facilities since at least 2023. The state also launched the Petro in 2018, an experiment widely judged unsuccessful. The current nine-year demand peak appears to have given regulators both the public mandate and operational incentive to enforce the ban more aggressively.
A key unresolved issue is the fate of the seized equipment. Venezuelan authorities have not said whether the roughly 4,000 machines will be destroyed, auctioned, or repurposed. In other countries, seized mining hardware has occasionally been redeployed by state entities, effectively nationalizing hashrate; whether Venezuela will follow that route remains uncertain.
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