Crisis Over? U.S. CBP & Bitcoin ASIC Importation

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Want to mine Bitcoin? Check out the Blockspace Media store today!

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, hosts Colin and Will dive into the ongoing saga of US Customs and Border Protection seizing Bitcoin mining hardware at various ports of entry. Initially targeting Antminer units in late 2024, the seizures expanded to include equipment from Whatsminer and Canaan, costing some companies millions in detained assets. The hosts explore how industry lobbying - particularly through Senator Lummis and connections to the Trump administration - has begun to resolve the situation, along with theories about why these unprecedented seizures occurred in the first place. Could this push more manufacturing onshore?

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:17 History of seizure trend

09:08 Lobbying the government for release

17:42 Follow on effects

20:13 Bitmain plans

24:20 Conspiracy corner: Evil or Entropy

Notes:

- $5 million worth of hardware seized from one company

- Seizures expanded beyond Antminer to Whatsminer/Canaan

- Detentions began Sep 2024, escalated to seizures Feb 2025

- Shipments being released after industry lobbying

- Sen. Lummis and White House helped resolve situation

- CBP cited unauthorized communications equipment laws

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

👉 Nicehash, Hashrate, Bitcoin payments and mining!

NiceHash is the world leading hashrate marketplace providing a full suite of tools and software for miners to optimize their operations. Based in Switzerland, NiceHash is a fully regulated crypto mining platform.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews

on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices