5-4-2025 – Fresh trade tariffs unveiled by US President Donald Trump could cast a shadow over the Bitcoin mining landscape, both at home and abroad, a leading industry figure has cautioned. Kristian Csepcsar, the chief marketing officer at Braiins, a prominent Bitcoin mining technology firm, said that while American companies like Auradine are crafting mining equipment, the dream of a fully US-based supply chain—right down to the raw materials—remains out of reach.
The announcement, made on 2 April, sees Trump slapping a blanket 10% tariff on goods flooding into the US from all nations, alongside tailored “reciprocal” duties aimed at America’s major trading allies. Within the Bitcoin community, opinions are split: some dismiss the tariffs’ potential sting as overblown, while others warn of a looming threat to the sector’s stability.
Csepcsar painted a grim picture of an industry already under strain, spotlighting the Bitcoin hashprice—a vital gauge of a miner’s daily earnings per unit of computational power. This figure, he noted, has been sliding since 2022, plumbing record depths of $50 in 2024, with Bitbo data showing it languishing at $53 as recently as 30 March. “Hashprice is the heartbeat miners monitor to gauge their profits,” he explained. “It tells you how many dollars a terahash earns daily—and it’s never been lower.”
The pain doesn’t end there. Tariffs on mining gear, already creeping upwards under President Biden in 2024, are set to tighten further under Trump’s watch. Csepcsar pointed to remarks from Summer Meng, head of Chinese mining supplier Bitmars, and singled out Bitmain—the globe’s top ASIC producer, based in China—as a prime target of the new measures. Trump’s policy piles a hefty 34% surcharge atop an existing 20% levy on Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to fire back with its own retaliatory tariffs on 4 April.
Beyond China, the ripple effects touch cutting-edge chip production in Taiwan and South Korea, now saddled with 32% and 25% tariffs respectively. “The US is years—perhaps a decade—away from matching that level of chip-making prowess,” Csepcsar observed. “In the meantime, even American firms will feel the pinch.” He also flagged a potential shift in global mining power, with nations like Russia and Kazakhstan in the Commonwealth of Independent States flexing their muscles. “If this trade war drags on, regions with cheaper tariffs and miner-friendly conditions could surge ahead,” he warned.
The broader implications for Trump’s vision are stark. Having vowed to cement the US as the world’s Bitcoin mining hub, he now faces a policy that might hobble that ambition. The industry’s short-term losses, Csepcsar argued, could undermine American firms and bolster rivals abroad. Trump’s relationship with cryptocurrency has been a rollercoaster, veering from scepticism to a more welcoming stance as his administration warms to digital assets. Yet, with these tariffs stirring the pot, the jury’s still out on how his economic gambit will shape the future of Bitcoin mining.
