President Biden states that Chinese nationals “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,”
President Joe Biden of the United States has issued an order prohibiting a cryptocurrency mining company with ties to China from further utilizing land in the vicinity of a Wyoming nuclear missile base.
MineOne Cloud Computing Investment and its associates must divest property utilized as a cryptocurrency mining facility near the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, per the directive issued by the White House on May 13.
“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that MineOne Partners Limited, a British Virgin Islands company ultimately majority owned by Chinese nationals […] might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”
After acquiring the property in June 2022, MineOne improved it in preparation for its use as a cryptocurrency mine near the Air Force base. The order stated that the military installation houses intercontinental ballistic missiles and functions as a strategic missile base.
Additionally, the firm and its affiliates must remove all site-installed equipment after the enhancements. Additionally, Chinese-affiliated entities are denied further access to the site, which is less than a mile from the base, per the order.
The property must be sold within 120 days of the order date, and the company is strictly prohibited from transferring it to any third parties.
Microsoft, a technology behemoth with a nearby data center, has previously raised concerns regarding this specific website.
According to an investigation by the 2023 New York Times, the Microsoft team stated in an August 2022 report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) that the location might enable the Chinese to “engage in comprehensive intelligence collection operations.”
The order compelling MineOne to sell the land, according to Treasury Secretary and committee chair Janet Yellen, “highlights the critical gatekeeper role that CFIUS serves to ensure that foreign investment does not undermine our national security.”
In 2021, within one month, MineOne raised over $20 million for its inaugural fund. According to the announcement, U.S. institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals have not “actively subscribed” to the fund since its inception in October 2021.
As part of its ongoing assault on cryptocurrencies, the Biden Administration has previously ordered a crackdown on the U.S. Bitcoin mining industry, citing China as a model to emulate.
The Chinese governing regime severely restricted cryptocurrency mining in 2021, sparking a mass exodus of mining operations, most of which ultimately arrived in the United States.
The most recent directive from the White House arrived one day before the Biden administration’s impending steep increase in tariffs on various Chinese imports, including electric vehicles.
