U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been ordered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stop shipments of Bitmain Antminer units at ports across the country.
According to a November 25 Blockspace Media report, CBP is specifically targeting shipments of Bitmain’s latest ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) copters, the Antminer S21 and T21, while other manufacturers such as MicroBT and Canaan remain untouched.
The shutdowns, which in some cases have been going on for months, involve major ports, including locations such as San Francisco and Detroit. Many bitcoin mining companies have reported long delays and uncertainty about when shipments will be released.
Sources have indicated that the FCC’s directive may be related to an investigation into components used in Bitmain’s ASIC miners, in particular the Sophgo CV1835 chip.
„CBP has withheld deliveries for more than 30 days without explicit requests from the Importer of Record (IOR), this goes beyond normal service standards and is extremely rare.” – said one source, according to the report.
Sophgo is currently under the magnifying glass due to its alleged ties to Huawei, which has been under US sanctions since 2019. However, based on the report, no official confirmation links the delays to this investigation.
Companies are facing rising costs due to the prolonged halt in deliveries
Some affected companies have expressed concerns about the lack of communication from CBP and the FCC. They report that they are being charged significant storage fees, and one company has accumulated more than $200,000 while waiting for the 200-unit case to be resolved.
Industry insiders have suggested that the FCC and CBP may check the retained units for use of proprietary equipment. Bitmain used a variety of component suppliers, which means that not all units in the affected models necessarily contain the disputed Sophgo chips.
„It is worth noting that Bitmain sources control boards from various suppliers, so the fact that Bitmain used the CV1835 chip in some models does not mean that every copy of that model contains the chip in question,” the report reads.
