U.S. orders Chinese-backed crypto miner to sell land near nuclear missile base

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an order on Monday forcing a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining company to sell land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base, citing national security concerns.

The company, MineOne, acquired the real estate in June 2022, placing its operations within a mile of the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, a “strategic missile base and key element of America’s nuclear triad,” according to the White House.

The company’s site contained “specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities,” the presidential order said.

Biden said there was “credible evidence” to believe that the company, a British Virgin Islands firm that is majority-owned by Chinese nationals, “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”

MineOne was ordered to divest from the land in the next 120 days, and to remove certain improvements and equipment at the property. The company did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The move from the Biden administration comes against the backdrop of a wider crackdown on Chinese companies in the U.S. ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, and amid tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

In April, Biden signed a law to force the divestiture of social media platform TikTok from its Chinese parent company ByteDance on grounds of national security. Meanwhile, the administration is expected to issue new tariffs on several Chinese imports of EVs, medical supplies and other equipment, as soon as Tuesday.

The latest order aimed at MineOne was made following an investigation by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – a government agency chaired by the U.S. Treasury Department that investigates corporate deals for national security concerns.