{"id":11546,"date":"2024-03-13T11:23:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T09:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/us-proposes-30-excise-tax-on-bitcoin-mining-electricity\/"},"modified":"2024-03-13T11:23:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T09:23:15","slug":"us-proposes-30-excise-tax-on-bitcoin-mining-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/us-proposes-30-excise-tax-on-bitcoin-mining-electricity\/","title":{"rendered":"US Proposes 30% Excise Tax on Bitcoin Mining Electricity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The administration of US President Joe Biden has proposed a 30% excise tax on electricity used for cryptocurrency mining, such as Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Biden administration is proposing a 30% tax on electricity used by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/bitcoin?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#bitcoin<\/a> miners, even if you are off-grid using your own solar and wind generation. All of the reasons they provide are pretextual, their real reason is that they want to suppress Bitcoin and launch a CBDC. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/juNHvO2NBx\">pic.twitter.com\/juNHvO2NBx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pierre Rochard (@BitcoinPierre) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BitcoinPierre\/status\/1767371855512432900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The document claims that the increasing energy consumption for digital asset mining negatively impacts the environment and leads to higher energy prices.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Mining also creates uncertainty and risks for local utilities and communities because this activity is highly variable and mobile,&#8221; the proposal states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The tax is expected to be introduced gradually: 10% in 2025, 20% the following year, and reaching 30% thereafter.<\/p>\n<p>The taxable base will be the electricity consumed for mining, even if generated from off-grid sources.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre Rochard, Vice President of Research at Riot Platforms, described the reasons for the excise as &#8220;pretextual.&#8221; He suggested the true aim is to &#8220;suppress Bitcoin to launch a CBDC.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Commentators questioned his assumptions, noting that the decision to introduce a digital dollar is made by Congress, not the president&#8217;s administration. Jerome Powell, head of the <span data-descr=\"Federal Reserve System of the United States\" class=\"old_tooltip\">Federal Reserve<\/span>, confirmed this at recent Senate hearings.<\/p>\n<p>The authors of the excise proposal stated it aims to reduce mining activity to mitigate the listed negative effects.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Cynthia Lummis criticized the initiative, arguing that the &#8220;confiscatory tax&#8221; would deprive the crypto industry of &#8220;any foothold&#8221; in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The White House 2025 budget is incredibly bullish on crypto assets, some might even say they believe it\u2019s going to the moon.?<\/p>\n<p>But a proposed 30% punitive tax on digital asset mining would destroy any foothold the industry has in America.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenLummis\/status\/1767309098310152698?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">US Authorities Focus on Mining<\/h2>\n<p>In May 2023, the Biden administration&#8217;s Council of Economic Advisers had already proposed including a 30% tax on electricity used by miners in the federal budget. Experts traditionally cited high energy consumption as a threat to the environment and communities.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal faced criticism from industry representatives. Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel stated that the planned fiscal levy would cause cryptocurrency mining businesses to leave the US.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, it became known that the industry attracted authorities&#8217; attention for another reason: concerns over national security due to Chinese mining companies operating in the country.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2024, the US Department of Energy&#8217;s Energy Information Administration <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-department-of-energy-to-investigate-bitcoin-miners-energy-consumption\">initiated a survey<\/a> of miners regarding energy consumption. The agency planned to collect data on demand, geographical distribution of consumption, and sources of generation over six months.<\/p>\n<p>Riot Platforms and the industry group Texas Blockchain Council filed a civil <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/riot-platforms-sues-u-s-department-of-energy-over-data-collection\">lawsuit<\/a> in Texas demanding to stop the &#8220;emergency data collection&#8221; by authorities.<\/p>\n<p>The court sided with industry representatives. The instance ordered the agency to cease the survey, destroy the collected information, and cover the plaintiffs&#8217; related expenses.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">ICYMI: Riot, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TXblockchain_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TXblockchain_<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DigitalChamber?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DigitalChamber<\/a>, filed a lawsuit pushing back on government overreach targeting our industry.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the federal govt agreed to end an &#8220;emergency&#8221; survey that would have published miners&#8217; sensitive business information, without\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RiotPlatforms\/status\/1764745244728582447?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The US became the leader in Bitcoin hash rate share in 2021, overtaking China.<\/p>\n<p>In the following years, the country further widened its lead. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minermetrics.io\/estimating-the-global-geographical-distribution-of-bitcoin-mining\/\">MinerMetrics<\/a>, the United States accounts for approximately 40% of the total computing power of the first cryptocurrency&#8217;s network.<\/p>\n<p>In February, Bitcoin miners set a record for electricity consumption in a month \u2014 19.6 GW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The administration of US President Joe Biden has proposed a 30% excise tax on electricity used for cryptocurrency mining, such as Bitcoin. Biden administration is proposing a 30% tax on electricity used by #bitcoin miners, even if you are off-grid using your own solar and wind generation. All of the reasons they provide are pretextual, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1137,1150,558,26],"class_list":["post-11546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-news-plus","tag-taxes","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"15","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}