The White House’s Bitcoin Mining Tax Undermines Itself

The authors of this tax – I’m told the ringleader is Heather Bouchey of the White House Council of Economic Advisors – acknowledge that miners can freely move abroad, undermining their policy. But they seem to be laboring under the naïve delusion that governments globally will impose similar levies on Bitcoin miners. This is wishful thinking in the extreme. The Biden Admin claims that “China banned such activity completely in 2021,” but we know there is still meaningful Bitcoin mining in China. And the Biden Admin, which has fewer friends abroad by the day, can hardly expect other jurisdictions to move in lockstep with them. The U.S.’s loss is Russia’s, Iran’s, China’s, and Venezuela’s gain. Additionally, the Biden admin has repeatedly called for more transparency in terms of miner emissions and energy impact – they have clear access to this data if miners are based here in the U.S., but virtually no insight if these miners are domiciled in China or Russia.