U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at the request of the Federal Communications Commission, has been detaining imports of Bitmain’s Antminer ASIC miners at ports nationwide for as much as two months.
The delays have impacted seven U.S.-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining firms with out solutions, based on a report from Blockspace. The detained fashions embrace the S21 and T21 sequence miners.
CBP has not disclosed the rationale for the detentions or offered a timeline for decision. Some affected firms have reported day by day holding charges exceeding $200,000.
The holds don’t seem to focus on different ASIC producers, corresponding to MicroBT or Canaan, and are reportedly concentrated at West Coast ports like San Francisco.
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Border delay hypothesis
Industry hypothesis suggests the delays could also be associated to scrutiny of chips equipped by Xiamen Sophgo, a Chinese semiconductor firm beneath investigation for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions, based on Blockspace.
Sophgo’s chips, together with the CV1835, are reportedly utilized in sure Antminer fashions, such because the S19 and T21 sequence. Sophgo’s CEO, Micree Zhan, can also be a co-founder of Bitmain, elevating questions on potential hyperlinks to the investigation.
The Department of Commerce started investigating Sophgo after discovering a chip linked to the corporate in a Huawei gadget. Huawei has confronted U.S. sanctions since 2019 over nationwide safety considerations.
While no confirmed hyperlink exists between these sanctions and the detained Antminer shipments, sources speculate the FCC and CBP are inspecting imports for restricted elements.
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