Hong Kong police have detained two men on suspicion of diverting electricity from care homes for the disabled to power cryptocurrency mining machines.
Police allege the pair, aged 32 and 33, used their access during renovation work to install eight devices in the suspended ceilings of two offices. The machines ran around the clock, adding as much as $1,153 (HK$9,000) to monthly power bills.
Inspector Ng Tsz-wing from Sham Shui Po’s technology and financial crime squad said the case came to light after one home noticed repeated slowdowns in its internet service. Its IT staff uncovered unauthorised equipment concealed above the office ceiling, and similar devices were later discovered in another home in Sau Mau Ping.
Police arrested the suspects last Friday in Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po on charges of “abstracting electricity.” Investigators believe the men acted alone rather than as part of a larger syndicate.
Ng urged organisations to keep close watch over contractors during renovations and to monitor electricity bills for sudden increases. He warned that concealed equipment can remain hidden for months. Under Hong Kong’s Theft Ordinance, illegally using electricity carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
“The public should also pay more attention to electricity bills or network usage and make relevant checks and notify police in case they find some suspicious circumstances,” Ng said, according to the South China Morning Post.
Illegal crypto mining is “power theft and a safety risk,” Shanon Squires, Chief Mining Officer at Compass Mining, told Decrypt. He added that, “This activity goes against core tenets for many Bitcoiners, such as private property rights and not harming others. Engaging in electricity theft is directly taking someone's property without permission and causing them harm by sticking them with the bill.”
Squires pointed out that the mining rigs shown by Hong Kong police “do not appear to be Bitcoin miners,” noting that, “At smaller scales, it's possible that illegal mining is more common than generally perceived, especially for altcoin mining rather than Bitcoin, unless it's a larger-scale operation.”
Cryptocurrency mining, the process of using specialized computers to solve complex mathematical problems in exchange for coins, is notoriously energy-hungry.
Research by Digiconomist estimates that Bitcoin mining alone generates an annual carbon footprint of more than 105 million tonnes of CO2, comparable to Belgium’s total emissions. Its electricity use is similar to Thailand’s, and its freshwater demand mirrors Switzerland’s.
The Hong Kong case is far from isolated. In Thailand earlier this year, police raided three abandoned houses in Pathum Thani province and seized 63 mining machines that were illegally connected to utility poles.
In the UK, officers in West Yorkshire uncovered an operation in Bradford where miners were running off an illicit electricity supply.
And in Central Asia, officials have also reported widespread abuse of energy grids. Tajikistan’s attorney general said illegal mining drained more than US$3.5 million worth of electricity in the first half of 2025 alone, while in neighbouring Kazakhstan, authorities discovered miners tapping into enough power to supply a city of 70,000.
