What will US bitcoin miners do without Chinese material?

March was a particularly bad month for the stock prices of US Bitcoin mining companies. According to a recent report from investment bank JPMorgan, the total market capitalization of the 14 US-listed Bitcoin mining companies fell by around 25%, marking the third-worst monthly performance ever.

Marathon Digital

The first quarter in the United States wasn’t exactly great for the economy in general, and the crypto sector certainly wasn’t immune to the carnage. But on top of that, China is scaling back its investments in the United States. China is of course the country where companies like Marathon Digital and Cipher Mining are buying their equipment.

Chip Wars

The US and China have been engaged in a massive chip war for years over the production and distribution of semiconductor technology. The White House has repeatedly tried to restrict China’s access to the advanced US chip technology.

Such restrictions have forced China to improve its own chip technology and develop domestic manufacturing capabilities. On the other hand, the US Bitcoin mining industry is heavily dependent on the import of Chinese-made mining hardware, such as so-called application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). In response to the trade war announced by Trump, China has therefore imposed restrictions on the export of ASICs from now on.

We can only hope that will not negatively impact the price of Bitcoin.