Donald Trump’s latest pro-crypto push includes courting Bitcoin miners at Mar-a-Lago

The Republican presidential candidate took to Truth Social on Tuesday night — just hours after meeting with executives from publicly traded Bitcoin miners CleanSpark and Riot Platforms at an event at Mar-a-Lago — to post: “Bitcoin mining could be our last be a line of defense against a CBDC [central bank digital currency]. Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia and the Radical Communist Left. We want all remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! This will help us to be ENERGY DOMINANT.”

Referring to energy dominance, Trump’s attack on central bank digital currencies and support for crypto-mining echoes responses often heard from the miners themselves when criticized for their excessive energy use: In times of extreme weather, miners have actually been able to stabilize the network by temporarily shutting down operations. . Trump reportedly told Mar-a-Lago attendees that miners play a crucial role in bolstering the grid’s energy supply, Matthew Schultz, executive chairman of CleanSpark, told Bloomberg.

Therefore. Just ran into a guy who is a huge fan of #bitcoin and LOVES what we are doing at @CleanSpark_Inc in #georgia and #mississippi and #wyoming . pic.twitter.com/ofSXJGWWfn

— S Matthew Schultz (@smatthewschultz) June 11, 2024

Following Trump’s post, Thomas Chippas, CEO of publicly traded miner Argo Blockchain, told Fortune that it was “remarkable to see the momentum behind crypto from both the industry and regulators,” and that the mining industry “sees the potential has to further strengthen his position with political support.”

Bitcoin mining is a growing – albeit controversial – industry. The global crypto market was $1.92 billion in 2022, and it is expected to reach approximately $7 billion by 2032. As of April, JPMorgan analysts tracked 14 publicly traded Bitcoin miners in the US. Over the past 12 months, shares of the two largest, Marathon Digital Holdings and CleanSpark, have risen by 120% and 347% respectively.

Since the Chinese Communist Party’s crypto ban in 2021, which overturned China’s role as the world’s largest source of mining, miners have scrambled to build data centers overseas. While mining hubs have popped up in Ethiopia, Kazakhstan and Paraguay, among others, the US has strengthened its role as the leader: Just three years since the ban, its share of global crypto mining operations has grown from 3.5% to 38%. The US’s rise is largely due to abundant farmland, investment and access to cheap power.

Mine critics on both sides of the aisle

The mining facilities are mainly located in rural regions in Republican states. In 2023, roughly half of the US hashrate — the total computing power used to mine Bitcoin — was mined in Southern states, including 28.5% in Texas alone, according to data from mining pool Foundry. Residents living near the data centers, which are often built on farmland, have launched lawsuits and protests against the miners, citing excessive noise and draining power and water, as in Arkansas and Texas.

At the federal level, President Joe Biden’s administration has launched a crackdown on crypto, citing national security risks and environmental concerns. In January, the Department of Energy and the Energy Information Administration ordered miners to submit data about their power consumption, via an emergency survey of Cryptocurrency mining facilities. EIA Administrator Joseph DeCarolis said mining “potentially disrupts the electric power industry” and so the agency could request the data on an expedited basis. Crypto mining operations can now consume up to 2.3% of US electricity, according to the EIA. “Public harm is quite likely if normal clearance procedures are followed,” he added. However, after a lawsuit, the agency had to resubmit the survey without emergency status.

Then, in May, Biden gave a Chinese-owned Bitcoin miner in Wyoming 120 days to sell the land it operates on, due to potential espionage concerns, the White House said in a statement. MineOne Partners manages the mine, which is less than a mile away from Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, which stores intercontinental nuclear missiles. “The presence of specialized and foreign equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities poses a national security risk,” the White House said.

Last October, the New York Times reported that the tip about the Wyoming facility came from Microsoft, which operates a nearby data center that supports the Pentagon and warned that it could allow the Chinese to “continue full-spectrum intelligence-gathering operations sit.”