Latest news with #ASICMiners
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
'Huge Blow': Bitcoin Miners Push Back Against Trump Tariffs
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.
Associated Press
18-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
AXP and BitFuFu Partner in Power Generation
Successful completion of 14-day gas-to-power trial at Pathfinder production hub delivers ~1.5 MW/hour of electricity to power two bitcoin mining containers; The 14-day trial delivered ~85% system uptime and, since the end of the trial, the system has achieved greater than 90% uptime; AXP has secured the support of NASDAQ-listed Bitcoin miner BitFuFu, Inc. (NASDAQ: FUFU, for the next phase of expansion at Pathfinder; BitFuFu will supply additional ASIC Miners and other equipment to support the next phase of expansion, with AXP focused on delivering gas-to-power and site services; All parties are now committed to establishing power generation output of 25MW/hour by the end of CY2025 for a significant scale up of bitcoin mining operations, powered by Pathfinder's ~750 Bcf of contingent gas resources; The parties are now assessing further expansion opportunities. FLORENCE, CO / ACCESS Newswire / March 18, 2025 / AXP Energy Limited (ASX:AXP)(OTC PINK:AUNXF), ('AXP', 'Company') is pleased to report the successful completion of the initial trial of gas-to-power operations at the Pathfinder production hub in Colorado (announced 6 February 2025) that saw the Company deliver 1.5 MW/hour of electricity over 14 days at 85% uptime to support successful bitcoin mining activities. Since the completion of the trial, with further system adjustments, system uptime of greater than 90% has been achieved. AXP has, through its JV partner, secured the support of NASDAQ listed BitFuFu, Inc (NASDAQ: FUFU, ('BitFuFu') for the next phase of expansion of bitcoin mining activities at the Pathfinder Field which has a ready supply of natural gas from its portfolio of 24 wells which have further production upside. As communicated, AXP is now targeting the phased delivery of 25MW of electricity by the end of CY2025. The next step is to expand the first site to 5MW of electricity with BitFuFu contributing additional ASIC miners and associated equipment. In addition to scaling up operations at the Pathfinder Field, the parties also collaborating on other potential opportunities in North America with AXP as the energy provider. AXP Energy Managing Director, Dan Lanskey commented,"AXP is in an exciting position following this trial and we have had excellent fortune to deliver a reliable operation which has now been running smoothly for over a month. BitFuFu's participation is an outstanding development for AXP and aligns with our strategy of attracting counter parties that have the capacity and balance sheet to significantly scale up operations in Colorado and other sites under consideration. The first site acts as a valuable reference point, with all parties demonstrating they we can bring a reliable gas-to-power-bitcoin mining operation online in a fairly seamless manner, and that this can be replicated many times over for a greatly scaled up operation here. Our focus now turns to the build out of this next phase and we will report on progress as it unfolds. Work is now advancing on this phase and we are wasting no time. It is worth noting that this first site only consumed ~200 Mcf of gas per day, very modest flows, and the current portfolio of wells has capacity much beyond this.' About BitFuFu, Inc. BitFuFu Inc. is a global leader in Bitcoin mining and comprehensive mining services, providing customers with one-stop solutions including cloud-mining. BitFuFu received early investment from BITMAIN, a world-leading digital asset mining hardware manufacturer, and remains BITMAIN's strategic partner in the Bitcoin mining and mining services space. BitFuFu is dedicated to fostering a secure, compliant, and transparent blockchain infrastructure, providing a variety of stable and intelligent digital asset mining solutions to a global customer base. Leveraging its expanding global mining facility network and strategic partnership with BITMAIN, BitFuFu enables institutional customers and digital asset enthusiasts to mine digital assets efficiently. For more information, please visit This announcement has been authorised by the Board of AXP Energy Limited. FURTHER INFORMATION Dan Lanskey, Managing Director:+61 (0)451 558 018 Sam Jarvis, Non-Executive Chairman: +61 (0)418 165 686 ABOUT AXP ENERGY LIMITED AXP ENERGY Limited (ASX: AXP, OTC: AUNXF) is an oil & gas production and development company with core operations in Colorado. AXP is focused on repurposing stranded gas at its 100%-owned Pathfinder Field for power generation and plans to sell this power to data centre operators and owners focused on High Performance Computing (HPC) including AI, rendering and other high processor intensive operations. AXP has 24 operating oil & gas wells at its Pathfinder Field. DISCLAIMER This announcement contains or may contain 'forward looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of1933 and Section 21B of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be 'forward looking statements.' Forward looking statements are based on expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those presently anticipated. Forward looking statements in this action may be identified through the use of words such as 'expects', 'will,' 'anticipates,' 'estimates,' 'believes,' or statements indicating certain actions 'may,' 'could,' or 'might' occur. Hydrocarbon production rates fluctuate over time due to reservoir pressures, depletion, down time for maintenance and other factors. The Company does not represent that quoted hydrocarbon production rates will continue indefinitely.
