Biden Won’t Tax Crypto Out of Existence: Lummis

Lummis originally made critical comments of the Biden Administration’s tax on bitcoin miners at Bitcoin Miami, but retweeted an article summing up her views on Thursday

article-image

Bryan Regan/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Senator Cynthia Lummis had harsh words for the Biden Administration’s idea to impose a 30% tax on electricity used by bitcoin miners. In a word, she rejected it completely.

“That isn’t going to happen,” Lummis told Chamber of Digital Commerce founder and CEO Perianne Boring at Bitcoin Miami last week. 

The Wyoming Republican revisited the issue Thursday, tweeting reports focused on her comments at the bitcoin-centric conference. 

“A 30% tax hike on any specific industry is a blatant attempt by the administration to pick winners and losers,” Lummis wrote. “I will not let President Biden tax the digital asset industry out of existence.”

Loading Tweet..

At the conference, Lummis also seemed to hint that bitcoin miners will simply flee the US should the Biden Administration institute the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) tax, saying that “miners can mine anywhere.”

This is a point that has been made by industry participants as well. Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel told Blockworks in early May that in that kind of tax environment, miners would have no choice but to go abroad. 

“We’re going to essentially make bitcoin mining unprofitable in the US. Then what you’re going to do is push it offshore,” Thiel said, talking about the tax. 

A conservative think tank didn’t pull any punches on the Biden Administration either and gave the DAME tax proposal a failing grade in a scathing mid-May piece. 

Industry members and conservatives aren’t the only ones attacking Biden on this, although much of it could be attributed to political grandstanding.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president as a Democrat, joined the dog pile right after the proposal was announced by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers on May 2, 2023. He called it a “mistake.”

“It is a mistake for the U.S. government to hobble the industry and drive innovation elsewhere. Biden’s proposed 30% tax on cryptocurrency mining is a bad idea,” Kennedy tweeted on May 3, 2023.

Loading Tweet..

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

The convergence of DePIN and energy generation aims to address modern grid challenges by incentivizing distributed generation.

article-image

US states are now competing for Bitcoin bragging rights

article-image

The deal is likely to fuel further M&A around derivatives trading and infrastructure, Architect Partners’ Michael Klena says

article-image

Stripe announced Stablecoin Financial Accounts, which will allow businesses to have “stablecoin-powered accounts”

article-image

The deal is made up of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock

article-image

Blockworks Research uses numbers to help crypto advance to a higher stage of storytelling