The Americas | Bitcoin mining

Crypto cowboys have found paradise in Paraguay

Cheap electricity, lax laws and low taxes: what’s not to like?

A maze of overhead electricity and phone cables, Paraguay.
Photograph: Alamy
|ASUNCIÓN

The country is used to drug busts and bank heists. But the hooded gunmen who recently burst into a warehouse in Minga Guazú, in Paraguay’s rural east, weren’t after cocaine, weed or cash. Instead they sped off with 150 sophisticated computers that had been secretly hooked up to the grid. The shaken caretaker called the police. But when they came, he declined to reveal who owned the clandestine bitcoin-mining operation.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Pulling the plug”

When markets ignore politics

From the July 20th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from The Americas

The mad, bad Maduro regime clings to power

Behind-the-scenes negotiations seek to ease him out of office

After protests over a stolen election, the goons crack heads

Yet the brazenness of Nicolás Maduro’s theft crosses a line


The plight of Brazil’s indigenous groups worsens

Blame illegal miners, ranchers, loggers, traffickers and an unsympathetic Congress


Will El Mayo’s arrest slow the spread of fentanyl?

The United States nets a very big fish

The strong dollar is hurting exports from Latin America

For three small dollarised economies it has exposed a lack of competitiveness