U.S. Customs has been holding Bitmain’s Bitcoin mining Antminer ASIC miners at ports nationwide for up to two months, at the FCC’s request
A story from Blockspace says that the delays have left seven Bitcoin mining companies in the U.S. wondering what’s going on. Among those detained are the S21 and T21 series miners.
The CBP has not provided an explanation for the detention of the individuals or a timeline for resolving the issue. Some of the affected companies report daily holding fees exceeding $200,000.
Other ASIC manufacturers like MicroBT or Canaan don’t appear to be the target of the holds. They primarily occur at ports on the West Coast, such as San Francisco.
Speculation about a border delay
Blockspace speculates that additional checks on chips supplied by Xiamen Sophgo, a Chinese semiconductor company under investigation for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions, may be the cause of the delays.
Some Antminer models, such as the S19 and T21 series, reportedly use Sophgo chips like the CV1835. Micree Zhan, CEO of Sophgo, is also a co-founder of Bitmain. This makes people wonder if there are any connections between the two companies and the probe.
The Department of Commerce began investigating Huawei after discovering a Sophgo-related chip in a Huawei device. Since 2019, the U.S. has put sanctions on Huawei because of worries about national security.
Despite the lack of a link between these sanctions and the held Antminer shipments, sources report that the FCC and CBP are searching imports for prohibited parts.
