Charter Planes and Bidding Wars: How Bitcoin Miners Raced to Beat Trump’s Tariffs

When US president Donald Trump announced sweeping tariff hikes in April, he set in motion a seven-day rush to bring goods into the country. Bitcoin miners elbowed their way to the front of the queue.

Twelve minutes after midnight on April 8, a Boeing 777-300ER barreled down a runway at Singapore Changi Airport. In its belly, it carried precious cargo: 3,000 kilograms of specialized bitcoin mining equipment bound urgently for New York.

As the plane took to the sky, staff at US-based Luxor Technology could begin to relax. The company, which trades bitcoin mining hardware and provides related software services, was importing the equipment on behalf of a client. The flight’s departure from Singapore was the result of a seven-day scramble to arrange transport for the $1.3 million shipment.

A week earlier, on April 2, US president Donald Trump had announced sweeping tariff hikes on goods from ...