Biden Proposes Tax On Crypto Mining Due To 'Harms They Impose On Society'

President Joe Biden has proposed a punitive tax on cryptocurrency mining operations due to the "harms they impose on society."

What Happened: In a statement released by the White House CEA on Tuesday, the administration proposes a penalty that could impede profits by levying a tax equal to 30% of a mining company's energy expenses. 

The CEA argues that the industry currently enjoys undue financial advantages due to its lack of obligation to cover the full costs of pollution, carbon emissions, and higher energy prices. 

While the new rules would only apply to cryptocurrency mining, the CEA says "cryptomining does not generate the local and national economic benefits typically associated with businesses using similar amounts of electricity."

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Why It Matters: The administration first proposed the Digital Asset Mining Energy tax on March 9. 

Leading US cryptocurrency mining firms that could be affected by the tax include Cipher Mining CIFRW, CleanSpark CLSK, BitDeer, Greenidge Generation GREE, Riot Blockchain RIOT, and Marathon Digital MARA. 

Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD are two of the most popular cryptocurrencies that are mined using computational power. Their mining requires specialized hardware and software and has been a significant driver of the cryptocurrency industry’s energy consumption.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $28,528, up 1.78% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.

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