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Donald Trump is on a mission to mine every dollar and vote<\/a> out of the cryptocurrency industry he possibly can.\u00a0His latest conquest? The actual miners.<\/p>\n The Republican presidential candidate took to Truth Social on Tuesday night\u2014just hours after meeting with executives of publicly traded Bitcoin miners CleanSpark Inc. and Riot Platforms at an event at Mar-a-Lago\u2014to post<\/a>: \u201cBitcoin mining<\/a> may be our last line of defense against a CBDC. Biden\u2019s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT.\u201d<\/p>\n In citing energy dominance, Trump\u2019s attack on central bank digital currencies<\/a> and support for crypto mining echoes responses often heard from the miners themselves when criticized for their outsized energy usage: In times of extreme weather, miners actually could stabilize the grid<\/a> by temporarily dialing down operations.\u00a0Trump reportedly told Mar-a-Lago attendees that miners play a pivotal role in bolstering the grid\u2019s energy supply, Matthew Schultz, executive chairman of CleanSpark, told<\/a> Bloomberg.<\/p>\n So. I just ran into a guy that\u2019s a huge fan of #bitcoin<\/a> and LOVES what we\u2019re doing at @CleanSpark_Inc<\/a> in #georgia<\/a> and #mississippi<\/a> and #wyoming<\/a>. pic.twitter.com\/ofSXJGWWfn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 S Matthew Schultz (@smatthewschultz) June 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Following Trump\u2019s post, Thomas Chippas, CEO of the publicly traded miner Argo Blockchain, told Fortune<\/em> that it\u2019s \u201cremarkable to see the momentum behind crypto from both industry and regulators, and the mining industry has \u201cthe potential to strengthen its position further with political support.\u201d<\/p>\n Bitcoin mining is a growing\u2014albeit controversial\u2014industry. The global crypto market was $1.92 billion in 2022, and it\u2019s expected to reach around $7 billion by 2032. As of April, JPMorgan analysts tracked 14 publicly traded Bitcoin miners in the U.S. Over the past 12 months, shares of the two largest, Marathon Digital Holdings and CleanSpark, have soared 120% and 347%, respectively.<\/p>\n Since the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s crypto ban in 2021, which overturned China\u2019s role as the world\u2019s biggest source of mining, miners have been scrambling to build data centers overseas. While mining hubs have popped up Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and Paraguay, among other countries, the U.S. has cemented its role as the leader: Just three years since the ban, its share of global crypto mining operations grew from 3.5% to 38%<\/a>.\u00a0The U.S.\u2019s ascent is largely thanks to ample agricultural land, investment, and access to cheap power.<\/p>\n The mining facilities are predominantly located in rural regions in Republican states. In 2023, about half of the U.S. hashrate\u2014the total computational power being used to mine Bitcoin\u2014was mined in southern states, including 28.5% in Texas alone, according to data from the mining pool Foundry. Residents who live in proximity to the data centers, often built on agricultural land, have launched lawsuits and protests against the miners, citing excessive noise and the draining of power and water, such as in Arkansas<\/a> and Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a federal level, President Joe Biden\u2019s administration has launched a crackdown on crypto, citing national security risks and environmental concerns. In January, the Department of Energy and the Energy Information Administration ordered miners to submit data about their power usage<\/a>, via an emergency Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities Survey.\u00a0EIA Administrator Joseph DeCarolis had said mining \u201cpotentially disrupted the electric power industry\u201d and thus the agency could request the data on an expedited basis. Crypto mining operations may now consume up to 2.3% of U.S. electricity, according to the EIA.\u00a0\u201cPublic harm is reasonably likely if normal clearance procedures are followed,\u201d he added. However, following a lawsuit, the agency was required to resubmit the survey without emergency status.<\/p>\n Then, in May, Biden gave a Chinese-owned Bitcoin miner in Wyoming 120 days to sell the land<\/a> on which it operated due to possible spying concerns, the White House said in a statement<\/a>. MineOne Partners runs the mine, which is less than a mile away from Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, which stores intercontinental nuclear missiles. \u201cThe presence of specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities presents a national security risk,\u201d the White House said.<\/p>\n Last October, The New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that the tipoff about the Wyoming facility had come from Microsoft<\/a>, which operates a nearby data center supporting the Pentagon and cautioned that it could enable the Chinese to \u201cpursue full-spectrum intelligence collection operations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Mining critics on both sides of the aisle<\/h2>\n