Bitcoin miners in US face disruptions over trade war with China: report

U.S. crypto miners relying on Bitmain hardware are seeing shipment delays as customs officials increase scrutiny amid trade tensions.

Crypto mining firms in the United States are facing delays in getting new equipment as customs officials tighten checks on shipments from Bitmain, the top supplier of Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs.

Beijing-based Bitmain dominates the market for specialized mining rigs, but its deliveries to U.S. clients have been slowed down by increased scrutiny, Bloomberg reports, citing industry executives who have noticed more frequent inspections.

“U.S. Customs has started randomly inspecting almost all of the airlifted Bitcoin mining machines since about three months ago.”

Nuo Xu, founder of China Digital Mining Association

New York-based Bit Digital said 700 of its mining rigs were delayed by a few weeks. An Oklahoma-based operation has 2,000 rigs stuck in customs, a person familiar with the matter said. Luxor Technology’s Ethan Vera noted that shipments “with Bitmain miner labels” were among those being targeted. The situation could worsen, the report notes as a 10% tariff on Chinese imports took effect Feb. 1, adding to the costs of new machines.

Bitmain’s supply chain headaches are happening just as its co-founder, Zhan Ketuan, is under pressure from U.S. authorities over his AI company, Sophgo. The firm got blacklisted in January for allegedly helping China’s chip industry and working with Huawei.

Zhan’s move into AI didn’t sit well with everyone at Bitmain as some execs weren’t thrilled about shifting focus away from mining hardware. The blacklist also hit Sophgo hard, cutting it off from key suppliers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Despite all this, Bitmain announced plans for a new U.S. facility in December, but they’re keeping the location under wraps.