Biden ordered the removal of a Chinese-owned crypto mine near the missile

Biden ordered the removal of a Chinese-owned crypto mine near the missile


US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order barring a Chinese-linked crypto mining company from continuing to use land near a nuclear missile site in Wyoming.

The order, released by the White House on May 13, will force MineOne Cloud Computing Investment and its partners to vacate property that operates as a cryptominer near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Biden cited national security concerns for the order to revoke the company's property rights.

“There is reliable evidence that leads me to believe that a British Virgin Islands company called MineOne Partners Limited is Chinese-owned. […] He may take action that threatens the national security of the United States.

MineOne acquired the property in June 2022 and has since redeveloped it to use it for crypto mining near the Air Force base. The military installation is a strategic missile base and home to intercontinental ballistic missiles, the order read.

Ledger

The organization and its affiliates are required to remove all devices installed after the updates. The order bars Chinese-linked entities from gaining any further access to the site, which is less than a mile from the base.

The company has 120 days from the date of the order to sell the property and is not allowed to transfer it to third parties.

A map showing the proximity of the MinerOne site, Francis E. Warren AFB, and the Microsoft data center. Source: Google Maps

Red flags about this particular site have previously been raised by tech giant Microsoft, which has a nearby data center.

The location could allow the Chinese to “pursue the full spectrum of data collection activities,” the Microsoft group wrote in an August 2022 report by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), according to a 2023 New York Times investigation.

Treasury Secretary Janet Allen, who chairs the committee, said the order to force MineOne to sell the land “highlights the critical gatekeeping role CFIUS plays to prevent foreign investment from undermining our national security.”

MineOne raised more than $20 million for its first fund in one month in 2021. The fund has been “actively subscribed” by US institutional investors and senior investors since its launch in October 2021, according to an announcement at the time. .

Cointelegraph reached out to MineOne for comments but did not get an immediate response.

Related: China Has Trojan Horse in US Bitcoin Mining Infrastructure

The Biden administration has previously ordered a crackdown on the U.S. bitcoin mining industry, citing China as an example as part of an ongoing war on crypto.

In the year In 2021, China's ruling regime severely curtailed crypto mining, which triggered the evacuation of mining operations, most of which ended up in the US.

The latest White House order comes a day before the Biden administration plans to raise tariffs on a range of Chinese products, including electric vehicles.

Magazine: What do crypto market makers do? Liquidity, or fraud

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