The Mined in America Act Wants to Build a Domestic Bitcoin Mining Supply Chain — Can It Work?

The United States controls 38% of the world's Bitcoin hash rate — yet 97% of the specialized hardware powering those operations is manufactured in China. Senators Bill Cassidy and Cynthia Lummis want to fix that contradiction, and they have introduced a bill that could reshape the economics of crypto mining from the ground up.

The Mined in America Act, introduced on March 30, 2026, is the most ambitious piece of Bitcoin mining legislation ever proposed in the United States. It combines a voluntary certification program, domestic hardware manufacturing incentives, and a formal codification of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into a single legislative package. Arriving in the middle of an escalating tariff war that is already squeezing mining margins, the bill attempts to reframe Bitcoin mining as critical national infrastructure rather than a speculative curiosity.

Why Washington Is Paying Attention to Hash Rate

Bitcoin mining has become big business in the United States. American operations generate over $5 billion in annual revenue, employ thousands of workers in rural communities, and consume approximately 132.6 GWh of electricity per day — roughly 1.1% of total U.S. daily electricity demand.

But the supply chain behind those operations tells a different story. Bitmain Technologies and MicroBT, both headquartered in China, manufacture the overwhelming majority of the application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that power global Bitcoin mining. When Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff cascade hit on April 2 — imposing a 10% baseline duty on all imports plus reciprocal tariffs as high as 54% on select countries — the cost of importing mining rigs from Chinese manufacturers jumped overnight.

Some miners saw it coming. In early 2026, operators chartered $3 million flights to front-run tariff deadlines, rushing hardware into the country before duties took effect. Others have been rerouting supply chains through Southeast Asia, but even that workaround is closing: reciprocal tariffs of 19% now apply to ASIC imports from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

The Mined in America Act addresses this dependency head-on by creating a pathway to a domestic mining hardware industry.

Inside the Bill: What the Mined in America Act Actually Does

The legislation is built around four interconnected pillars.

Voluntary Certification Program

The Department of Commerce would establish a "Mined in America" certification for mining facilities and pools. To qualify, operations must demonstrate they use no equipment manufactured by entities domiciled in or controlled by countries designated as foreign adversaries — currently China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.

This is not an immediate ban. Certified facilities get a defined transition runway, with a full hardware phase-out required by the end of the decade. The gradual timeline acknowledges the practical reality that American miners cannot replace 97% of their equipment overnight.

Domestic Hardware Manufacturing Support

The bill directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) to support U.S. manufacturers in developing secure, energy-efficient mining hardware. Rather than creating new spending programs, the legislation integrates certified mining projects into existing federal energy and rural development programs.

This is a shrewd legislative design. By leveraging existing programs rather than requesting new appropriations, Cassidy and Lummis reduce the political friction that typically kills ambitious industrial policy proposals.

Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Codification

The bill formally codifies Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve within the Department of the Treasury. More importantly, it creates a mechanism to fill that reserve without taxpayer spending: certified miners can sell newly mined BTC directly to the reserve in exchange for capital gains tax exemptions.

This budget-neutral approach solves a practical problem. A government buying Bitcoin on the open market would move prices and face political criticism. Purchasing directly from domestic miners creates a closed loop — American energy powers American hardware, which mines Bitcoin that flows into American reserves.

Tax Incentives for Certified Operations

The capital gains exemption for certified miners selling to the reserve functions as a powerful economic incentive. It makes domestic mining operations more competitive relative to foreign operations that face no such hardware restrictions, partially offsetting the higher cost of non-Chinese equipment during the transition period.

The Tariff Squeeze: Why Timing Matters

The bill lands at a particularly painful moment for U.S. mining economics. Trump's tariff regime has created a multi-layered cost problem:

• Direct Chinese tariffs: With average U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports at approximately 29.3%, ASICs imported directly from Bitmain or MicroBT face substantial duties.
• Southeast Asian workarounds closing: Reciprocal tariffs of 19-21.6% on imports from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand eliminate the main alternative import routes.
• Proposed 100% China duty: A potential 100% duty on all Chinese imports, first floated in late 2025, remains on the table for late 2026.

Industry experts warn these tariffs are already dampening U.S. mining growth and shifting machine flows to countries with more favorable import regimes, particularly Canada. The irony is clear: a tariff policy intended to strengthen American industry is pushing mining capacity offshore.

The Mined in America Act reframes this dynamic. Instead of just taxing foreign hardware, it creates an alternative pathway — build the hardware domestically. The question is whether U.S. manufacturers can scale quickly enough.

The Global Hash Rate Race

The geopolitical dimension of Bitcoin mining is hard to ignore. According to Hashrate Index data from January 2026:

• United States: 37.5% of global hash rate (~400 EH/s), the dominant player
• Russia: 16.4% (~175 EH/s), powered by cheap natural gas and Siberian hydropower
• China: 11.7% (~125 EH/s), persisting through underground and semi-tolerated operations despite an official ban

Together, these three countries control approximately 68% of global hash rate. But the competition is intensifying. Emerging markets like Paraguay, Ethiopia, and Oman have entered the global top 10, attracted by low energy costs and favorable regulatory environments.

Russia presents a particularly interesting competitor. With abundant energy resources and no hardware supply chain constraints (Russian operations can freely import Chinese ASICs), Russia has been steadily expanding its mining footprint. Some analysts see an emerging "mining-for-export" strategy, where Russian-mined Bitcoin flows into global markets as a form of sanctions-resistant economic activity.

The Mined in America Act implicitly acknowledges this competition. By tying mining to a national reserve strategy, it elevates hash rate from an industry metric to a matter of national economic security.

The Renewable Energy Angle

One of the bill's subtler strengths is its alignment with an improving sustainability narrative. Bitcoin mining's energy mix has shifted dramatically:

• Renewable and non-fossil fuel sources now account for approximately 52.4% of global mining energy, up from 37.6% in 2022.
• Hydroelectric power provides 23.4% of mining energy, followed by wind at 15.4% and solar at 3.2%.
• Nuclear energy contributes another 9.8%.

In the United States specifically, miners have increasingly clustered around stranded energy assets — flared natural gas, excess wind generation in West Texas, and curtailed solar in the Southwest. The Mined in America Act's integration with existing federal energy programs could accelerate this trend, potentially making certified U.S. mining operations the greenest large-scale mining infrastructure in the world.

This matters politically. Mining's energy consumption has been its biggest vulnerability in Washington. A bill that simultaneously addresses energy independence, manufacturing, and sustainability is harder to oppose than one that simply subsidizes mining.

Critical Questions and Challenges

The bill is not without significant obstacles.

Can the U.S. actually build competitive ASICs? China's dominance in ASIC manufacturing is not just about cheap labor — it reflects decades of semiconductor supply chain development. Intel and other American chipmakers have the technical capability, but building specialized mining hardware at competitive price points requires different manufacturing expertise than general-purpose processors.

Will the "end of the decade" deadline stick? A hardware phase-out deadline in 2029 or 2030 gives operators 3-4 years to transition. That is tight but plausible if domestic manufacturing scales. However, legislative timelines frequently slip, and the next administration could weaken or eliminate the requirement.

Is a voluntary certification enough? Because the program is voluntary, miners who choose not to certify face no penalties. The incentive structure (tax benefits, reserve sales) may not be sufficient to offset the higher cost of non-Chinese hardware for all operators, particularly smaller miners operating on thin margins.

How does this interact with existing tariff policy? The bill creates incentives to buy American hardware, but it does not remove the tariffs that currently raise the cost of foreign hardware. In the transition period, miners face both the difficulty of sourcing expensive domestic alternatives and the tariff burden on imports they need today.

What Comes Next

The Mined in America Act now enters the committee process, where it will face scrutiny from senators who may question whether Bitcoin mining deserves the same industrial policy treatment as steel, semiconductors, or rare earth minerals.

Its bipartisan sponsorship is a positive signal — Cassidy brings energy policy expertise from Louisiana, while Lummis has been the Senate's most consistent crypto advocate. The bill's integration with existing programs rather than new spending also improves its political prospects.

But even if the bill stalls legislatively, it represents an important shift in how Washington thinks about Bitcoin mining. The framing has moved from "should we allow this?" to "how do we make sure it happens here." That shift, regardless of this particular bill's fate, is unlikely to reverse.

For the U.S. mining industry, the message from Cassidy and Lummis is clear: America wants the hash rate, but it wants the hardware supply chain too. The tariff war made that tension impossible to ignore. The Mined in America Act offers one vision for resolving it.

BlockEden.xyz provides high-performance blockchain API infrastructure for builders across Ethereum, Sui, Aptos, and more. Whether you are building mining analytics dashboards or DeFi applications on top of Bitcoin layer-2s, explore our API marketplace for reliable access to 30+ blockchain networks.