Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar said the nationwide crackdown led to 629 arrests and focused on electricity theft, while authorities step up intelligence-led enforcement.
Malaysia has seized 75,578 cryptocurrency mining machines in 3,049 raids carried out between 2022 and May 2026, with 629 arrests made in joint operations involving the Royal Malaysian Police, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the Energy Commission and local councils. Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar told parliament the government is widening enforcement by using information-sharing and technology to identify high-risk areas so it can deliver a "faster and more precise" response. He said crypto ownership and trading remain legal in Malaysia, although digital assets are not recognized as money, and stressed that the crackdown targets mining operations that use stolen electricity, tampered meters, disrupted power systems or unlicensed setups. The issue has become a major utility-fraud problem because mining rigs run continuously and consume heavy power loads, creating incentives to conceal usage. Tenaga Nasional Berhad has said electricity theft linked to crypto mining rose about 300% between 2018 and 2024, with detected cases increasing from 610 to 2,397, while losses tied to about 14,000 illegal mining locations between 2020 and August 2025 exceeded 4.6 billion ringgit, or about $1.1 billion. Shamsul also told parliament that investigators found no evidence that police, agents or members of the Manjung municipal council were involved in alleged illegal raids in Manjung, Perak.