DETROIT, March 5 (Reuters) – U.S. authorities have started releasing seized Chinese-made equipment used for cryptocurrency mining, according to two industry executives who spoke with Reuters.
Cryptocurrency miners utilize powerful computers with advanced chips to solve complex mathematical problems. This process is crucial for building the blockchains that underpin the cryptocurrency world and allows miners to earn rewards in the form of new digital currency.
“Thousands of units have been released,” said Taras Kulyk, CEO and co-founder of Synteq Digital, a cryptocurrency mining equipment broker. He added that at one point, as many as 10,000 units were held up at various ports of entry.
Kulyk explained, “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.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began seizing certain bitcoin mining equipment late last year, as reported by the industry publication Blockspace in November. The publication indicated that at least some of the machines may have been detained because they contained chips from the trade-restricted Chinese chip company Sophgo.
The releases come amidst the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China and reflect security concerns raised by U.S. authorities, which date back to the end of the Biden administration.
Ethan Vera, chief operating officer of Luxor Technology, told Reuters that “some held shipments are being released, but right now that is still a minority of them.” Vera and Kulyk both stated that authorities raised concerns about radio frequency emissions from the machines, which they asserted were unfounded.
A spokesperson for the CBP acknowledged Reuters’ request for comment Wednesday but did not immediately respond. The FCC also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sophgo was sanctioned near the end of the Biden administration for allegedly acting as an intermediary between high-end Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC and the blacklisted Chinese telecom company Huawei, Reuters reported in October.
