A Chinese-owned Bitcoin miner has been forced off land in Wyoming following an order from President Joe Biden. In his statement, the White House announced that, citing espionage concerns, the government had given miners and their partners 120 days to sell the land on which they operate. He is less than a mile from Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, where MineOne Partners operates the mine and stores intercontinental nuclear missiles.
“The presence of specialized foreign-made equipment that could facilitate surveillance and espionage poses a national security risk,” the White House said in a statement. Neither MineOne Partners nor the U.S. Embassy in China immediately responded to requests for comment.
According to the statement, MineOne purchased the land in 2022 and subsequently installed cryptocurrency mining equipment there. At the time, the transaction had not been submitted to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, but it was later reported by a member of the public. After investigation, CFIUS determined that the purchase had national security implications. Last October, new york times The report said the tip came from Microsoft, which operates a nearby data center that supports the Pentagon, and warned that China could “carry out a full spectrum of intelligence-gathering activities.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that the decision “underscores the critical gatekeeping role that CFIUS plays in ensuring that foreign investment does not undermine our national security.”
“Large amount of Bitcoin miners”
U.S. land purchases from Chinese companies are “definitely on the rise,” said Anita Nikolic, a technology innovation principal at the University of Illinois. luck. As a result, 33 states reportedly introduced 81 bills last year seeking to curb foreign land purchases. washington post. Nikolic said the order for the Wyoming operation was not an attack on Bitcoin miners specifically, but rather part of a larger picture. There are “numerous recent signs of hostile activity” on critical infrastructure, including foreign purchases of land near such infrastructure. The Biden administration “cannot ignore” it.
In fact, in February, a Chinese hacking network known as Bolt Typhoon was declared inactive for five years inside U.S. planes, trains, and water infrastructure, and was “pre-positioned” for future sabotage. intelligence agencies said in a statement. Bolt Typhoon is “the defining threat of our generation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a U.S. committee hearing shortly after.
MineOne is just one of many Chinese-owned miners building data centers in southern states and the Midwest, where farmland is abundant and energy is cheap. Regarding the increase, Nikolic says, “The number of Bitcoin miners is increasing in large numbers.''of times We found Chinese-owned or operated miners in at least 12 states, collectively using the energy equivalent of 1.5 million homes. The series of purchases comes as a result of the Chinese Communist Party's ban on bitcoin mining in 2021, upending its previous position as an industry leader and forcing it to operate overseas.
At least one of those mines, Polaris Technologies in Muskogee, Oklahoma, may have been circumventing state laws regarding foreign-owned land purchases. The miner purchased the industrial land from the state of Oklahoma last May and obtained the land deed. luck show. The company is using the land to build a $100 million data center. Polaris CEO Meng Zhang is a Chinese national and former employee of Bitmain, a Chinese company that produces 90% of Bitcoin mining machines and ASICs.
Some miners are incentivized to build data centers with contracts that give companies access to the grid at discounted prices. For example, Bison Blockchain, a Chinese-owned miner, obtained lower-than-normal rates from the state of Wyoming and its energy subsidiary Black Hills Energy. Several companies bid on the contract, which basically says, “We'll buy energy from you over a number of years, and in return you'll build a dedicated substation for our data center.'' , Nikolić explained.
The statement also follows today's announcement that Biden will increase tariffs on a variety of Chinese imports, arguing that China is unfairly subsidizing it and weakening U.S. competitors. It was done at the same time. The affected imports also include semiconductors, which could lead to higher production costs for U.S. miners who rely on mining ASICs, 98% of which are produced by Chinese companies.
