After months of blockage, thousands of Chinese-made machines are starting to leave American ports.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun releasing mining machines produced in China that had been held for months at various U.S. entry ports.
According to Taras Kulyk, CEO of Synteq Digital, a mining hardware manufacturing company, who told Reuters that “thousands of units have been released” after around 10,000 miners were seized at multiple entry points across the country. Kulyk stated:
“Apparently, there were some people within the CBP who didn’t particularly like Bitcoin mining and wanted to cause problems for the entire industry, which they did quite well.”
Ethan Vera, COO of Luxor Technology, also confirmed to Reuters that “some blocked shipments are being released, but at the moment, they are still a minority.”
The delays in Bitmain Antminer ASIC deliveries began last September, as reported by Blockspace in November. The halt was reportedly linked to the chip manufacturer Sophgo, connected to Bitmain, which was involved in a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation last October. The investigation was launched after chips similar to those ordered by Sophgo from Taiwan were found in a Huawei AI processor. Huawei has been under U.S. sanctions since 2019. However, Sophgo denied any commercial relationship with Huawei.
Regarding the customs halt of the machines, a mining company reported that CBP was charging a detention fee for the 200 ASICs it was awaiting, with costs that had already exceeded $200,000 by November.
According to sources, U.S. customs actions were taken at the request of the Federal Communications Commission.
China supplies the majority of all chips used in Bitcoin mining. Its largest manufacturer, Bitmain, has recently expanded its production line in the United States to address delivery delays.
