Faced with the dilemma of "computing power and hardware imbalance," is the "U.S. Mining Act" the first step for the United States to reshape the cryptocurrency mining industry?

By Glendon, Techub News

Currently, the U.S.’s focus on the crypto industry is deepening from crypto market-structure issues to a broader level of infrastructure sovereignty—specifically, the crypto mining sector.

Not long ago, a staffer for U.S. Senator Thom Tillis revealed that draft legislation for the crypto market structure bill, the “CLARITY Act,” will be released this week, mainly including provisions regarding stablecoin yields and rewards. In response, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis said that the latest revisions to the “CLARITY Act” draft will provide DeFi innovators and developers with “the strongest protections ever.”

For a long time, Cynthia Lummis has been actively pushing multiple crypto-asset bills, including crypto market structure and reforms to cryptocurrency taxation, and working to institutionalize President Trump’s strategic Bitcoin reserve executive order system.

Right on today, she and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy jointly introduced the “Mined in America Act,” and it has already received support from the Bitcoin Initiative Fund. As a natural extension of Lummis’s policy agenda, the bill aims to comprehensively advance the development of the U.S. crypto mining industry, and to formally incorporate the executive order establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve into the legal framework. In a press release, Lummis emphasized, “The ‘Mined in America Act’ will bring the crypto mining industry back to the United States through forward-looking measures, to secure the nation’s financial future.”

The “double strategy” of the “Mined in America Act”: “industry and finance”

The introduction of the “Mined in America Act” is not a simple adjustment of a single industrial policy, but a concentrated reflection of the U.S.’s “industry and finance” dual strategy in the field of cryptocurrencies. On the industrial side, Dennis Porter, CEO and co-founder of the Bitcoin Initiative Fund, pointed out the core pain point of the current U.S. crypto mining industry: a heavy reliance on hardware supply chains.

Taking Bitcoin as an example, Hashrate Index data shows that the U.S. currently controls about 37.52% of Bitcoin hashrate, ranking first in the world; Russia and China account for 16.42% and 11.73% respectively, ranking second and third.

It is worth noting that the U.S. share of the Bitcoin hashrate market has continued to rise, driven by the Chinese government’s complete ban on Bitcoin mining in the summer of 2021. That policy shock triggered what some described as a global mining “exodus,” with large numbers of mining rigs, technical teams, and capital quickly shifting to regions with cheaper electricity and looser regulation. The U.S., with its mature power-grid infrastructure, a relatively stable rule-of-law environment, and access to renewable energy resources, became the biggest beneficiary. At that time, its hashrate market share was still below 17%.

However, although the U.S. has now completed its transition from an important participant to the global leader, it still clearly lags behind in critical hardware and supply chains. As Dennis Porter put it: “The U.S. controls 38% of the world’s Bitcoin hashrate, but 97% of the hardware supporting that hashrate comes from China. This is not leadership—it’s a liability.” This market structure of “hashrate in hand, hardware elsewhere” is undoubtedly a potential risk for the development of the U.S. crypto mining industry. And against the backdrop of intensifying global geopolitical games, this risk becomes even more prominent. Once a supply-chain disruption occurs, the U.S. crypto mining industry will face a shrinkage crisis, which in turn would affect its voice and influence within the crypto industry.

On the regulatory front, in March 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives passed non-binding Resolution H.Res.238—formally recognizing, at the federal level for the first time, proof-of-work (PoW) Bitcoin mining for its positive value to national energy efficiency, renewable energy usage, technological innovation, and job creation. Although the resolution has no legal force, it was the first time Congress officially affirmed the economic and technical value of the mining industry through an official document. This means its stance has shifted from “watchful waiting” to “acceptance,” sending a clear policy-friendly signal to the market.

But beyond that, there are very few other bills related to U.S. crypto mining. That is precisely why the introduction of the “Mined in America Act” is of major significance: it seeks to build a virtuous cycle through a certification framework and policy support, break the U.S.’s dependence on the supply chain, and drive the return of mining hardware manufacturing to the United States.

Specifically, the bill’s core contents include four points: one, create a voluntary “Mined in America” certification system: require the U.S. Department of Commerce to establish a voluntary certification program for crypto mining facilities and mining pools, and to regulate mining pools and mining sites accordingly; two, phase out mining hardware associated with “foreign adversaries”: certified mining sites must gradually retire mining rig equipment produced by companies tied to “foreign adversaries”; three, use existing federal energy and rural programs to support the transition: incorporate certified projects into existing federal programs rather than authorizing new spending; four, support domestic mining hardware manufacturing: direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership projects to assist U.S. manufacturers in developing secure and energy-efficient crypto mining equipment.

As a result, it is clear that this bill is trying to reshape the U.S. mining industry chain from the source—localizing core links such as equipment manufacturing and mining-site operations—and to build a complete closed loop from hardware R&D to hashrate output. It can not only reduce supply-chain risks, but also drive related technology R&D and employment in manufacturing, forming new economic growth points. Cassidy emphasized this as follows: “Digital asset mining is an important part of the U.S. economic system, and this business should be conducted in the United States. This bill will ensure supply-chain security and support U.S. manufacturing.”

From a financial perspective, while the bill’s core content is to rebuild the crypto mining industry, its ultimate goal is to establish a national-level strategic Bitcoin reserve for the United States. As mentioned in the bill: to formalize Trump’s strategic Bitcoin reserve proposal and set up a strategic Bitcoin reserve project within the Treasury.

On March 6 last year, Trump officially signed a presidential executive order, first authorizing the Treasury to establish a “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” and placing roughly 200,000 Bitcoin seized by the Department of Justice into national assets. As early as July 2024, Lummis—an enduring supporter of crypto policy—had already proposed the “Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act of 2024” (BITCOIN Act of 2024), suggesting the creation of a five-year national strategic reserve of 1 million Bitcoin at the federal level, to be achieved gradually through annual purchases.

The “Mined in America Act” can be viewed as the preceding and following stages of that proposal in its policy evolution process. By working to institutionalize the Bitcoin reserve system, it is both an upgrade of Trump’s executive order—granting it long-term stability and legislative legitimacy to avoid the risk of policy reversal that could result from future administration changes—and a confirmation that the Bitcoin reserve will become a pillar of the national digital infrastructure strategy, further strengthening the U.S.’s policy commitment to become a global center for digital assets.

Conclusion

Similar to the “CLARITY Act,” the introduction of the “Mined in America Act” is another key milestone in the U.S.’s digital sovereignty strategy. For the first time, it tightly binds crypto mining companies, the hardware supply chain, and the national strategic reserve together—seeking, through legislative intent, to break the structural dilemma of “hashrate in hand, hardware elsewhere,” and to drive the U.S. from passively receiving global mining-rig flows to actively building an autonomous industrial ecosystem.

At the same time, this bill is not an isolated policy initiative, but an institutional continuation of Trump’s executive order—aiming to upgrade temporary executive authorization into a long-term expression of national will. Its significance is not about whether it passes or fails, but about signaling to the global market: the U.S. is defining the future direction of cryptocurrencies through the language of legislation.