'Huge Blow': Bitcoin Miners Push Back Against Trump Tariffs

Forbes

14-05-2025

Bitcoin mining companies are bracing for fallout from Trump's global tariff rollout, a move that will increase costs on imported hardware and potentially stonewall the industry's growth in the United States.
The Digital Energy Council, an advocacy group that represents the data center, bitcoin mining, and energy sectors, has submitted a comment to the United States Department of Commerce requesting that officials exclude ASIC miners – specialized computers used exclusively to mine bitcoin – from the tariffs, a benefit afforded to other computing devices like laptops and smart phones.
The Digital Energy Council responds to Trump tariffs for bitcoin mining with official comment to the ... More Department of Commerce
In the meantime, though, no exemption exists for ASIC miners, so U.S. bitcoin mining companies are bracing for an increase to their capital expenditure costs for ASIC miners and other critical bitcoin mining infrastructure.
Hashlabs CEO Jaran Mellerud wrote that the tariffs could 'have enormous implications for the entire bitcoin mining industry.'
Mellerud argues that the tariffs could dampen demand for ASIC miners in the United States, which currently houses more bitcoin mining activity than any other country. If U.S.-based mining demand wanes, then an ensuing glut of ASIC miner manufacturer supply 'could paradoxically drop [prices]
'This is a big deal. When we saw this news, we immediately had a war room,' said Luxor COO Ethan Vera. Luxor provides software and services for the bitcoin mining industry, which includes ASIC brokerage and trading services.
'We think this is a big blow to the American mining industry and it's certainly going to stagnate growth in the industry if these tariffs continue,' he added. Vera also said that bitcoin miners were rushing in the first week of April to charter air freight to the United States in an effort to front run the tariffs' implementation.
Vera said that Bitcoin miners were paying 2-4x the usual air freight rates to expedite shipments ahead of April 9, 2025, the effective date for the Trump administration's original reciprocal tariff schedule. Some of these flights were upwards of $3 million.
But then Trump reversed course, partially invalidating these efforts. The administration paused its original reciprocal tariff schedule on April 9 for a 90 day period, instituting instead a flat 10% tariff rate on more than 180 countries as the U.S. government opened negotiations with trading partners.
Since then, officials have made headway with a handful of countries. They brokered a deal on May 12 with China that dampened the superpower's own retaliatory tariffs, reducing for 90 days the United States' 145% tariffs on China to 30% while China reduced its tariffs on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%.
Still, all this prevaricating and negotiating may be little more than a consolation prize for miners, who must still stomach a 10% duty on critical equipment – and potentially higher duties once the 90-day pause lapses in July.
The two largest bitcoin mining computer manufacturers, Bitmain and MicroBT, assemble the vast majority of their machines in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Ironically, these companies offshored their manufacturing capacity in 2018 in response to Trump's tariffs against China in his first term. Adding to the tariff burden, many miners also tap China for the electrical and network equipment needed to operate their bitcoin mining sites.
Publicly traded bitcoin miners alone spent over $3.6 billion in 2024 on property, plant, and equipment, which includes ASIC miners.
Beyond bitcoin mining computers, the tariffs will increase capital expenditure (CAPEX) costs for raw materials needed to build and expand bitcoin mines, including aluminum, shipping containers (often used to house bitcoin mining computers), and other raw building materials; electrical infrastructure like transformers, power distribution units, and switch gears; and networking materials like ethernet cables and routers.
The tariffs are a tough pill to swallow for an industry that, in general, warmly embraced President Trump along the campaign trail. Trump courted the bitcoin and crypto industry during the election, promising to reform certain policies from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – such as SAB 121, which effectively barred banks from holding crypto assets – and putting a stopper in President Biden's 'war on crypto' by ending Chokepoint 2.0, an unspoken mandate to financially maroon cryptocurrency businesses.
Trump upheld most of his pro-crypto campaign promises. But he also said that he wants to make the U.S. 'the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world' and for 'all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!!"
The tariffs will make the second half of that pledge harder to manage. They could ultimately make the U.S., which currently houses 36% of Bitcoin's global computing power according to Luxor estimates, an uncompetitive market in the short-to-medium term.
Coincidentally, the tariffs will also impact the latest business venture from President Trump's sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. The two brothers recently rebranded their company American Data Centers Inc. to American Bitcoin, inking a deal with public bitcoin miner Hut 8 to integrate with the company as a subsidiary. Hut 8 has allocated all of its self-owned bitcoin mining capacity in exchange for an 80% stake in the subsidiary. America Bitcoin is gunning for a public listing on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger with Gryphon Digital.
Despite the doldrums, there may be hope yet for the bitcoin mining industry if they can convince the Trump administration to classify ASIC mining computers under the same tariff code as other computers.
The Trump administration announced that it will exempt certain computing equipment from its tariff schedule, namely desktops, laptops, smart phones, semiconductors, and similar devices.
But that won't include ASIC mining computers. They are classified separately from other computers under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
The Digital Energy Council is pressing the Department of Commerce to reclassify ASIC miners so that they can benefit from the exemption awarded to other computing equipment. The organization argues that exemption is only fair since ASIC miners are, strictly speaking, computers. It also argues that the exemption is a national security issue, and that the tariff policy directly contradicts the Trump administration's stated goal to nurture the United States' bitcoin mining industry:
Time will tell if this effort is fruitful. As of publication time, the Department of Commerce has not responded to the Digital Energy Council's comment.