Chinese manufacturers of Bitcoin mining rigs are moving production to the U.S. to sidestep tariffs and sanctions — 'This goes beyond tariffs — it’s a strategic pivot toward ‘politically acceptable’ hardware sources'

The top three Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining rig makers are setting up manufacturing plants and supply chains in the U.S. in a bid to avoid the tariffs and sanctions that Washington has placed on Beijing. According to Reuters, Bitmain, Canaan, and MicroBT — all of which were initially based in China — hold over 90% of the global mining rig market share, and the recent geopolitical changes are now driving them to set up shop in the United States.

“The U.S.-China trade war is triggering structural, not superficial, changes in Bitcoin’s supply chains,” Conflux Network Chief Technology Officer Guang Yan told Reuters. “This goes beyond tariffs — it’s a strategic pivot toward ‘politically acceptable’ hardware sources.” Conflux Network is a public layer-1 blockchain platform and is the only one approved for use in China.

Bitmain was the first one to begin moving into the U.S., as it started local production in December 2024 after President Trump won the U.S. presidential election by a landslide. On the other hand, Canaan started trial production after Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, which saw the White House putting a minimum of 10% import duty on everything being brought into the U.S, although its Head of Capital Markets Leo Wang said that this is still in the exploratory stage because the volatility of the trade situation. Lastly, MicroBT told Reuters that it’s implementing a localization strategy in the U.S. but hasn’t given any details so far.

The Bitcoin mining industry is just one of many that have been affected by Trump’s tariffs, especially as 30% of global Bitcoin mining happens within North America, according to U.S.-based mining rig manufacturer Auradine. Its Chief Strategy Officer, Sanjay Gupta, told the publication that Chinese mining rigs are a security risk to the U.S., with “hundreds of thousands of them connected to the U.S. electrical grid.” However, Wang countered that mining rigs are useless for any other application outside of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency mining.

Despite this, Trump’s tariffs are affecting these manufacturers. Chinese exports currently have 30% tariffs heading into the U.S., while the rest of the world has a baseline of 10%. That’s why it made sense for them to set up shop locally in the U.S. Aside from this, sanctions are affecting some Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining ASICs. Although they’re not directly targeted by the sanctions, some models have been affected because they allegedly contain AI chips from a sanctioned Chinese firm, Sophgo. By moving their supply chain to the U.S., these companies should be able to circumvent these limitations and avoid the extra charges put on by tariffs.

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