- Energy tax for mining digital assets has been dropped
- The CEA had previously proposed a levy with a 30% rate on electricity costs
On Sunday, May 28, U.S. President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck a deal on the nation’s debt ceiling.
The 99-page bill has one important part that talks about blocking certain mining taxes, including the Digital Asset Mining Excise Tax (DAME).
With this tax passed, firms that mine cryptocurrency would be taxed at a rate of 30%.
According to the Biden administration, such a move is necessary to “reduce the environmental and social impacts resulting from cryptocurrency mining operations.”
The CEO of bitcoin mining advocacy group Satoshi Action Fund, Dennis Porter, asked if the administration’s DAME excise tax proposal has disappeared.
U.S. Congressman Warren Davidson responded, “Yes, one of the victories is blocking the proposed taxes.”
The idea of implementing an energy tax was originally floated in March of this year.
Interestingly, this applies to both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) miners, despite significant differences in energy consumption.
But the proposal has drawn criticism from proponents of cryptocurrencies. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F.. Kennedy Jr. stated:
“BTC mining uses about the same things as video games, and no one is calling for a ban on them.
The environmental argument is a selective pretext for suppressing anything that threatens the power structures of the elite.”
At the recent Bitcoin 2023 conference, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis also expressed her displeasure with the proposal.
She stated that the flourishing of the bitcoin mining industry is not only a matter of national security, but also a matter of energy security.
She stated that the flourishing of the bitcoin mining industry is not only a matter of national security, but also a matter of energy security.