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Biden orders closure of China-backed cryptocurrency mine near Wyoming base
President Biden on Monday ordered the shutdown of a China-backed cryptocurrency mine near a nuclear missile base in Wyoming, saying it posed a risk to U.S. national security.
In his executive order On Monday, Biden ordered MineOne Partners Limited and its affiliates operating near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base to shut down and sell its cryptocurrency mine outside Cheyenne, Wyo.
MineOne is “ultimately majority-owned by Chinese citizens” through a purchase in June 2022, the order states.
The order states that the company has made modifications to the property so that it can be used for specialized cryptocurrency mining operations. It was built about a mile from an Air Force base that operates nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“The proximity of foreign-owned real estate to a strategic missile base and key element of the American nuclear triad, and the presence of specialized, foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities, presents a national security risk of the United States. States,” the executive order reads.
The company and its affiliates were also ordered to remove their equipment from the property within the next 90 days. The sale or transfer of the business must be made within 120 days, according to the ordinance.
It arrives months later The New York Times reported it Last October, Microsoft, which operates a nearby data center connected to the Pentagon, expressed concern about the facility Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Microsoft warned that it could allow the Chinese to “pursue full-spectrum intelligence-gathering operations,” according to the Times.
CFIUS is an interagency body that reviews deals and mergers involving foreign companies for national security concerns. It has the power to order companies to change ownership structures or divest from the United States
A 2018 law gave CFIUS the authority to investigate real estate transactions near sensitive sites in the United States, the Associated Press reported.
MineOne’s purchase of the property was not filed with CFIUS until the committee began investigating the transaction, according to the executive order.
The Hill reached out to MineOne via the company’s website for comment.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who chairs CFIUS, emphasized the committee’s “gatekeeper role” in a statement on Monday.
“It [the divestment order] also highlights the critical watchdog role played by CFIUS in ensuring that foreign investments do not undermine our national security, particularly with respect to transactions posing risks to sensitive US military installations, as well as those involving equipment and technologies specialized,” he wrote.
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