After a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm tried to buy land near a nuclear missile base in Wyoming, United States, President Joe Biden issued an order preventing this purchase, citing “national security risk” due to the vicinity of the nuclear site.
Specifically, the order prohibits the purchase and demands the divestment of the real estate belonging to a company largely owned by Chinese nationals and located within one mile of Francis E. Warren Air Force Base (F.E. Warren AFB), according to the US Treasury Department’s press release on May 13.
Also, it seeks “the removal of certain improvements and equipment at the property by MineOne Partners Limited, (…) majority owned by nationals of the People’s Republic of China; MineOne Cloud Computing Investment I L.P.; MineOne Data Center LLC; and MineOne Wyoming Data Center LLC (collectively MineOne), as well as their affiliates.”
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Reasoning behind Biden’s order
Furthermore, listing the reasons for this decision, the press release stated that F.E. Warren AFB is a “strategic missile base and home to Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles” and that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) had investigated this transaction.
Commenting on the President’s decision, the US Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen explained that:
“Today’s divestment order (…) highlights the critical gatekeeper role that CFIUS serves to ensure that foreign investment does not undermine our national security, particularly as it relates to transactions that present risk to sensitive US military installations as well as those involving specialized equipment and technologies.”
Crypto issue in Trump – Biden race
As a reminder, the incumbent US President has received scathing criticism from the crypto community due to his perceived hostility toward crypto assets, heightened after his recent announcement that he would veto legislation enabling highly regulated financial firms to act as custodians for crypto assets.
In response, his main opponent in the presidential race, former US President Donald Trump, expressed support for the crypto sector, arguing that Biden didn’t understand crypto but that he himself was “fine with it,” suggesting that other crypto supporters should vote for him, as Finbold reported on May 9.
