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Bitcoin miners are adapting their business strategies as the continued trade war between the US and Canada makes energy prices and policies all the more uncertain.

US President Donald Trump threatened to double his tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%, leading the government of the province of Ontario to walk back its own plan to increase the cost of power exports to the US.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford had promised to further increase the surcharge or even “shut off the electricity completely,” given further provocation. However, he appears to have softened his stance, at least for now. 

The trade war may have reached a lull, but some crypto firms are looking ahead at possible policy changes in order to protect their growth. 

Bitcoin miners expect changes in energy markets

Ben Ganon, the CEO of Canadian Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms, told Bloomberg on March 11 that the recent energy price hikes, had they gone through, were unlikely to affect his firm’s business. 

Bitfarms’ operations are mostly in Quebec and British Columbia, both of which boast significant hydroelectric capacity in relation to the total provincial energy mix. Ontario, by comparison, is “not as robust of an energy market. And over the last several years, they’ve really taken a big push on cutting back on baseload capacity.”

But even though Bitfarms’ energy situation may look solid for the time being, Ganon said that the tariffs “have implications for what policy and regulatory frameworks are going to look like in the future.”

He said that his firm wants to see “greater access to electricity markets” as well as fewer regulations on setting up a new business or new power applications. 

Energy policy has been a contentious area of debate in Canadian politics, with critics accusing the Liberal government — now led by Prime Minister Mark Carney — of harming the Canadian economy with their strategies to lower emissions. 

Related: What Canada’s new Liberal PM Mark Carney means for crypto

Ganon said: “The opportunities that are present in the United States are also present in Canada. And I think that this will all resolve itself and end up in a much more deregulated and smooth and efficient market because for years it’s been tied up in regulatory red tape.”

How would a Bitcoin miner benefit from tariffs?

Tariffs on goods such as steel, aluminum, and other industrial products — intended to encourage domestic production in the US— also impact Bitcoin miners, with some effects being unexpectedly beneficial.

While Ganon noted that miners can’t control the Bitcoin price, they can control their electricity costs. “One of the ways that we can do that is we can look for pockets of energy that are underutilized, that used to power heavy industry, which has been outsourced to other countries over the last 20 or 30 years.”

According to Ganon, Bitfarms has operations in Pennsylvania — a “Rust Belt” state heavily affected by the outsourcing of American steel and metals industries. His firm’s assets could soon be in high demand if the US manufacturing industry were to come back from the dead.

Ganon said that Bitcoin miners have been investing heavily in energy infrastructure that “used to power aluminum smelters and steel refineries and all the stuff which was outsourced.”

“Now Bitcoin miners have these assets. And as the pendulum swings back to America, those assets are now in high demand.”

China tariffs squeeze Bitcoin mining hardware

Canadian miners like Bitfarms may be unconcerned for now, but Trump’s tariffs on China have already begun to squeeze American crypto miners, who import hardware from China-based firms like Bitmain.

According to Bloomberg, shipments of Bitcoin mining hardware from China to the US were experiencing significant delays as of February 2025. The delays reportedly were the result of the US blacklisting Bitmain’s AI affiliate Xiamen Sophgo Technologies. 

Heavy customs fees for inspections of Bitmain-affiliated hardware have cost US miners up to $500,000, according to Vishnu Mackenchery, director of global logistics and services at Compass Mining Inc. New tariffs could make new imports of next-gen miners to the US “completely cost-prohibitive,” according to Synteq Digital CEO Taras Kulyk.

China-based mining hardware producers like Bitmain could set up operations in other countries to avoid US sanctions. During Trump’s first term, when he imposed a 25% tax duty on a number of consumer electronic goods from China, many mining hardware producers moved to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to avoid tariffs.

Bitmain even announced it would launch a US production line in December 2024 to “provide faster response times and more efficient services to the North American customers.” Bloomberg noted that the firm did not provide the exact location of its US line. 

Related: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says US should bring BTC onshore

Trump’s economic policies continue to be a mixed bag for the crypto industry. Wild fluctuations in trade policy and last-minute reversals have made the market difficult to predict. Elsewhere, the European Union has promised to impose counter-tariffs on the US, further threatening asset valuations. 

Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer of blockchain oracle solution firm RedStone, told Cointelegraph this could see Bitcoin sink to $75,000, a level not seen since November 2024. 

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Stablecoin adoption in Latin America is increasing as more users turn to Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT for financial stability, according to a new report from cryptocurrency exchange Bitso.

The USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT) stablecoins have become a “store of value” in Latin America, accounting for 39% of total purchases on Bitso in 2024, the firm said in its third edition of the Latin America Crypto Landscape report issued on March 12.

The report highlighted a significant increase in stablecoin adoption on the platform, with total stablecoin purchases surging 9% from 2023.

“In Latin America, challenging macroeconomic conditions, characterized by high inflation and currency devaluations, drove increased cryptocurrency adoption — particularly stablecoins — as a reliable store of value,” Bitso stated in the report.

USDC leads the race, Bitcoin follows

While stablecoin purchases surged, Bitcoin (BTC) saw a notable decline in trading volume on Bitso in 2024, with its share dropping to 22% from 38% in the second half of 2023.

According to Bitso, the decline in BTC purchases in Latin America indicates the growing trend of the hodl strategy, which implies buying and holding the cryptocurrency to profit from its long-term value appreciation.

The drop in BTC purchases aligned with the bull market of 2024, with Bitcoin rallying past $100,000 for the first time in history in December.

As Bitso users held off on Bitcoin purchases in 2024, buying activity switched to stablecoins like USDC and USDT, with the former leading the race at 24%.

Related: Brazil fintech unicorn Meliuz adopts Bitcoin treasury strategy

USDT purchases accounted for 15% of total cryptocurrencies acquired on Bitso in 2024.

Argentina is the top USDt market with a 50% share

A more detailed analysis of geographical preferences among Latin American countries showed a massive trend for USDT use in Argentina, which is known for its high stablecoin adoption due to inflation rates surpassing 100%.

According to the report, Bitso users in Argentina mostly favored purchases of USDT and USDC in 2024, accounting for 50% and 22% of all crypto purchases in the country, respectively.

On the other hand, the share of Bitcoin purchases in Argentina accounted for just 8% of crypto purchases last year on Bitso, the lowest share among other analyzed countries.

Brazilian and Mexican Bitso users still continued to favor Bitcoin as the most purchased crypto asset last year, with the BTC buying percentages accounting for 22% and 25%, respectively.

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