As geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to reshape global trade, China’s leading manufacturers of bitcoin mining machines are turning their attention to the United States. The move comes as part of a broader strategy to sidestep newly imposed tariffs and navigate tightening restrictions under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Canaan’s bitcoin mining fleet is currently hosted by Luna Squares in West Texas. Alongside Bitmain and MicroBT, the trio dominates over 90% of the global market for mining rigs—specialised machines designed to solve complex mathematical problems in exchange for newly minted bitcoin.
“The U.S.-China trade war is triggering structural, not superficial, changes in bitcoin’s supply chains,” said Guang Yang, chief technology officer at crypto tech firm Conflux Network. “This goes beyond tariffs. It’s a strategic pivot toward ‘politically acceptable’ hardware sources.”
Bitmain, the largest of the three, began U.S.-based production in December 2024, just weeks after Trump’s re-election. The company described it as a “strategic move” to navigate what many now call the Liberation Day levies, imposed in April.
Canaan, meanwhile, has started trial production in the U.S. “The initiative is exploratory as the volatile tariff situation precludes heavy investment,” said Leo Wang, a senior executive at Canaan. The company has also moved its headquarters to Singapore while maintaining a presence in China. The U.S. now accounts for 40% of Canaan’s revenue.
Third-ranked MicroBT said in a statement that it is “actively implementing a localization strategy in the U.S.” to “avoid the impact of tariffs.”
These three Chinese companies sit at the upstream end of a cryptocurrency supply chain that analysts estimate will be worth $12 billion by 2028. Their dominance—holding a combined 95.4% of the hardware market as of December 2023—has raised concern among U.S. rivals.
Auradine, a domestic competitor backed by MARA Holdings, has lobbied for limits on Chinese imports. “While over 30% of global bitcoin mining occurs in North America, more than 90% of mining hardware originates from China,” said Sanjay Gupta, Auradine’s chief strategy officer. “Hundreds of thousands of them connected to the U.S. electrical grid is a security risk.”
Wang, however, dismissed security concerns. “Mining rigs do not threaten security because they are useless if not applied to bitcoin mining,” he said. Still, he acknowledged that manufacturers could suffer “collateral damage” from wider U.S. restrictions on Chinese tech firms. Bitmain’s AI arm, Sophgo, has already been blacklisted by the U.S. government.
Once dominant across the entire cryptocurrency value chain, China relinquished that role after banning domestic crypto activity in 2021. Yet Chinese rig makers have retained their edge through early investment in bespoke, high-performance chips.
Despite establishing U.S. bases, Chinese firms may not escape the brunt of future restrictions. New tariffs include a 10% base rate on imports and an additional 20% on goods from China. Southeast Asian nations where Chinese companies operate may soon face similar levies.
President Trump has branded himself the “crypto president,” promising to push cryptocurrencies into mainstream use. His son, Eric Trump, recently co-founded miner American Bitcoin with Hut 8, aiming to build a strategic bitcoin reserve.
But the president’s crypto-friendly stance does little to ease concerns over China’s grip on critical infrastructure. “China’s hardware dominance creates a choke point for U.S. miners,” said U.S. crypto law expert John Deaton. “If China restricts exports or manipulates supply … it could disrupt bitcoin’s network stability.”
With leading U.S.-based miners such as MARA, Core Scientific, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms still reliant on Chinese hardware, many fear rising costs and strategic vulnerability. “In the short term, U.S. miners will still buy rigs from China and be stung by higher import costs,” warned Kadan Stadlemann, CTO at Komodo.
While Chinese bitcoin rig makers eye the U.S. for future growth, the evolving regulatory climate suggests their path will be anything but smooth.
