U.S. authorities have begun releasing seized bitcoin mining equipment after months of scrutiny over Chinese-made chips. Thousands of units are freed, but many remain held.
US Loosens Grip on Seized Bitcoin Mining Rigs, but Many Remain Confiscated
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US Starts Releasing Seized Bitcoin Mining Equipment
U.S. authorities have started releasing some of the cryptocurrency mining equipment that had been seized in recent months, Reuters reported on March 5. Taras Kulyk, CEO and co-founder of Synteq Digital, a mining equipment brokerage, told the news outlet:
Thousands of units have been released.
He noted that at one point, as many as 10,000 units had been stuck at various ports. Ethan Vera, chief operating officer of Luxor Technology, also told Reuters that “some held shipments are being released, but right now that is still a minority of them.” The release follows months of regulatory scrutiny, particularly concerning Chinese-made chips in the mining devices.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began confiscating certain bitcoin mining machines in late 2024, according to a report from Blockspace cited by Reuters. Some of the detained machines were suspected of containing chips from Sophgo, a Chinese semiconductor company facing U.S. trade restrictions.
Security concerns, including allegations that Sophgo acted as a middleman between Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC and blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei, contributed to the crackdown. Kulyk suggested that some CBP officials deliberately made the seizure process difficult, stating: “Apparently there were some folks in the CBP that really didn’t like bitcoin mining so they wanted to give the entire sector a headache, which they did quite well.”
Concerns over radio frequency emissions from the mining equipment were also cited as a factor in the detentions, though industry executives dismissed these claims as baseless, Reuters reported. While the CBP acknowledged a request for comment, it did not provide an immediate response, and the FCC also did not reply. The partial release of mining equipment comes amid ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China, particularly in the technology sector, where trade restrictions and security concerns continue to play a major role in policy decisions.
