Bitcoin Minor is rushing to adapt to Trump’s global tariffs. This is ready to raise prices for ASIC miners, electrical equipment, network infrastructure and more.
“It’s a complete scramble,” Luxor COO Ethan Bela said last week. Mining Pod News round up. “From the trading side of ASIC and the brokerages, miners weren’t particularly aggressive here. They didn’t necessarily give orders and reached the US. They are operating here within a week and are making sure all the shipments coming out of SE Asia are picked up and delivered.”
According to Hashrate Index’s ASIC price index data, ASIC prices have been heading slightly downward over the past year. New generation models like the S21 are currently running the miners for around $3,400.
Working outside hours to proceed with ASIC orders prior to these tariffs scheduled to take effect on April 9th, top companies chartered flights 2-4 times at normal rates. Block Space From Synteq Digital CEOs Taras Kulyk and Lucor’s Vera.
However, the initial panic was in response to a now outdated customs policy. Before the 90-day suspension on everything except China’s tariffs on Wednesday, the Trump administration had proposed blanket tariffs in more than 180 countries, including 24% in Malaysia, 36% in Thailand and 32% in Indonesia.
Following a 90-day bounty period, the Trump administration plans to reduce mutual tariffs in all affected countries to a flat rate of 10%. So the scrambling seemed a bit wasted. Or perhaps not – the administration’s trade policy is so mercury that everyone is speculating about whether a 10% rate exists.
Even at 10%, tariffs are important enough to hamper efforts to deploy hashrates in the US, and currently have an estimated 35-40% share of Bitcoin’s hashrate. As it stands, tariffs could significantly slow Bitcoin hashrate growth this year than expected.
Blockspace estimates that US Bitcoin miners imported more than $2.3 billion in ASIC miners last year, importing more than $860 million in the first quarter, starting with Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, the leading manufacturers of such machinery.
The mutual tariffs originally proposed
Bitmain and Microbt, which combine more than 90% of the ASIC Miner Market, moved their ASIC manufacturing capabilities outside of China to Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to respond to Trump’s Chinese tariffs in their first term. Microbt opened its US assembly plant in 2023, and Kulyk said Bitmain opened its first US assembly line in January. Still, these plants represent a portion of the total production of either manufacturer.
Kulyk said “there is a material discount in US production” compared to imported hardware. However, they will still suffer from tariffs on raw materials such as aluminum, electronic components for control boards, etc. Therefore, ASICS produced in the United States are more expensive than before the tariffs were introduced, especially when the proposed 125% tariffs are held on Chinese products.
According to Vera, China’s electrical components are scheduled for tariffs of more than 50% (it could even be exposed to up to 125% based on renewal rates from the Trump administration). This affects everything from the price of the ASIC miners to the electrical infrastructure of the mine itself.
When tariffs increase the costs of imported ASIC miners and other mining equipment, and all else becomes equal, existing US facilities should be more valuable. Still, US miners looking to expand may find acquisition a simpler route than importing equipment. Therefore, Kulyk expects the tariffs to offer mergers and acquisition deals, explaining that “these miners who have old gear that look like zombies actually look like an interesting acquisition opportunity.”
“Big blow” in the US Bitcoin mining sector
Kulyk said “no one has bought it” in the secondary market while waiting to see where the chips will fall.
In the medium term, tariffs are undoubtedly a “major blow” for the US Bitcoin mining sector, and “if these tariffs continue, it certainly will stagnate industry growth,” Bella said.
“If you’re paying more machines than your Canadian or Russian competitors, it’s going to be difficult to compete with international miners.”
“From an economic standpoint, Canada will actually be a much more interesting place. Corporate taxes will be reduced. Capital gains taxes will be reduced. There is a lot of wind in the sale of Canada’s economic growth, especially on the data center side,” Kulyk said.
Mark Carney, Liberal Liberal Party in the Canadian election, is helping to strengthen Canada’s data centers and energy industry. However, Canadian provinces such as Ontario and Quebec have moratoriums on new electricity applications for Bitcoin miners, leaving questions about Canada’s appeal to miners as an alternative to the US.
Kulyk believes Northern Europe is also seeking to expand its hashrate, but Vera said miners may find opportunities for several gigawatts in parts of South America and Africa.
However, growth is limited if miners are unable to access the US. Vera believes the impact of tariffs on Bitcoin mining will be similar in scale to China’s mining ban, and the hashrate will shuffle from the US to other countries. Tariffs can also significantly reduce ASIC costs in other markets, as international miners do not compete with the largest buyers of the US miners for allocation.
“It is probably relevant to consider this to be comparable to China’s ban in terms of the scale of the geopolitical impact,” Bella said. “Benefits will become international miners. They are now likely to access the machines at a much cheaper cost, as they are not competing with demand from the US.”
“We can argue that network hashrates will continue to rise… but the US has been a major part of its growth as an energy superpower.
