Bitcoin miner Bitdeer Expands Self-Mining Operations Amid Trade War Tensions
Bitcoin miner Bitdeer is reportedly expanding its self-mining operations and investing in United States-based production as looming trade wars rock global supply chains and cryptocurrency markets. Bitdeer has begun prioritizing mining Bitcoin (BTC) itself in response to cooling demand for its mining hardware from other miners, Bloomberg reported on April 15.
“Our plan going forward is to prioritize our own self-mining,” Jeff LaBerge, Bitdeer’s head of capital markets and strategic initiatives, reportedly said. Additionally, Bitdeer plans to scale US hardware manufacturing in the second half of the year as US President Donald Trump touts plans to penalize foreign imports and promote domestic manufacturing, Bloomberg said.
“This is something we’ve been planning for a long time,” LaBerge said about the manufacturing plans. “We want to bring jobs and manufacturing back to America.” In April, Trump tipped plans for sweeping tariffs on US imports. The Bitcoin network is especially vulnerable to trade barriers since mining hardware involves complex global supply chains.
Sector-wide Struggles
Bitcoin miners — including Bitdeer — have struggled in 2025 as volatile crypto markets worsen the impact of the Bitcoin network’s April 2024 halving. In February, Bitdeer’s stock dropped by roughly 28% after the Bitcoin miner announced lower-than-expected earnings and revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024.
Bitdeer’s “lower performance compared to Q4 2023 was primarily driven by the impact of the April 2024 halving,” among other factors, Harris Bassett, Bitdeer’s chief strategy officer, said during Bitdeer’s earnings call. Every four years, the amount of BTC mined per “block” — a bundle of transaction data stored on the blockchain — is cut in half. The April 2024 halving reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.
Since then, mining revenues and gross profits have dropped by an average of 46% and 57%, respectively, JPMorgan said previously in a research note shared with Cointelegraph. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s hash price — a measure of miner profitability — has sunk to nearly all-time lows, according to data from the Hashrate Index.
In 2024, Bitdeer tried to offset declining mining revenues by selling its own energy-efficient Bitcoin mining rigs. However, sales growth has been limited and did not offset weakness in other business lines in Q4. The market turbulence comes as Bitcoin Trump family-backed crypto mining operation American Bitcoin reportedly is considering an initial public offering.