Bitcoin Mining Stocks Plunge Amid Market Chaos

Shares of leading publicly traded bitcoin mining companies fell sharply on Thursday, a day after US President Donald Trump shocked markets by imposing global tariffs.

Shares of US miners such as Hive Digital, CleanSpark, Riot Platforms and BitDeer were trading 6-8% lower in the morning hours New York time.

Share prices of other US-based bitcoin miners such as Core Scientific and MARA fell more than 11% and 8% respectively.

The decline came after Trump, known for his support of cryptocurrencies, announced a base tariff of 10% on all U.S. imports and higher duties on some key trading partners, including 34% on China, which makes much of the mining equipment. The U.S. already imposes a 20% tariff on many Chinese goods.

And new problems could arise, Wolfie Zhao, head of research at industry publication TheMinerMag , told Decrypt . “In terms of the impact of tariffs, they will certainly impact mining companies that rely heavily on Chinese ASIC manufacturers for their continued growth,” he added.

“Increasing capital expenditure leads to longer payback periods for investments in an environment where the mining industry's economics are already in decline.”

The sector, largely concentrated in the US, has struggled in recent weeks as the price of bitcoin has fallen. It has already had to cope with a sharp increase in mining difficulty and a reduction in rewards due to last year's halving, which saw the reward for verifying transactions on the blockchain fall from 6.25 to 3.125 bitcoins.

Bitcoin miners – typically industrial enterprises that are warehouses filled with computers that secure the network – are rewarded with newly created coins for processing blocks in the decentralized payment system.

However, when the price of the largest cryptocurrency falls, it becomes more difficult for companies to cover their expenses.

Trump promised to support the digital asset industry during his election campaign. He said he wanted all future Bitcoin to be 100% American-made — which will likely be impossible .

According to data provider CoinGecko, the recent price of Bitcoin was $81,941 after falling more than 5% in the last 24 hours.

Almost all major digital coins and tokens also saw declines on Thursday afternoon ET.

Edited by James Rubin

Source: cryptonews.net