- The Biden administration revived on Tuesday a proposal to tax Bitcoin miners on their electricity consumption.
- Industry leaders say the move would force miners to relocate outside the US.
- The tax could also prove detrimental to US interests, miners say.
The Bitcoin mining industry is in an uproar after the White House reintroduced on Tuesday a controversial proposal for a tax on mining.
The Digital Asset Mining Energy tax, called DAME tax for short, would subject digital asset miners to a 30% excise tax on their electricity costs.
It could force Bitcoin miners to relocate outside the US.
“Implementing a blanket 30% federal tax on digital mining will certainly kill the sector and wipe out billions of dollars of investor value virtually immediately in the United States,” Taras Kulyk, CEO of SunnySide Digital, a mining hardware provider, told DL News.
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“A proposed 30% punitive tax on digital asset mining would destroy any foothold the industry has in America,” Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming and one of the most pro-crypto legislators in Congress, posted on X.
The DAME tax was initially proposed by the Biden administration last May to help shore up the government’s budget for fiscal 2024. But it met fierce opposition from lawmakers and industry leaders alike, and was dropped that same month.
The proposal was revived, however, as part of the budget proposal for fiscal 2025, which starts on October 1.
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