WASHINGTON — Bitdeer Technologies, a Singapore-based bitcoin mining company that designs its own mining chips, has hired Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to lobby on the Trump administration’s Section 232 semiconductor investigations, according to a Lobbying Disclosure Act registration posted Nov. 10.
The registration, effective Oct. 1, lists one issue: “Issues related to Section 232 semiconductor investigations,” under the trade category. It names two Akin lobbyists, both newly registered for the client: Cara Morrow, who the filing says was director of policy at the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration from February 2021 to October 2023 and a senior adviser at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office from October 2023 to January 2025, and Joseph Fawkner, who the filing says was a senior policy adviser to Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) from February 2020 to January 2022.
The filing describes Bitdeer as a provider of “bitcoin mining infrastructure and computing support.” A registration does not report fees; Akin’s first quarterly report for the client, covering October through December, is due Jan. 20.
The tariff at issue
President Trump imposed a 25% tariff on certain advanced computing chips and derivative products under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, effective Jan. 15, 2026, after a Commerce Department investigation found that semiconductor imports threaten national security, according to the proclamation. The administration’s stated aim is to strengthen the domestic chip supply chain. The proclamation exempts chips imported for several U.S. uses, including data centers, research and development, startups and public-sector applications, and it leaves room for other uses that the commerce secretary determines strengthen the U.S. technology supply chain or domestic manufacturing.
The proclamation also directs Commerce and the trade representative to pursue negotiations and says the president may consider broader semiconductor tariffs, along with a tariff offset program, depending on those negotiations, according to a summary of Proclamation 11002. The Section 232 finding also covers semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which carries no duty so far, according to the International Compliance Professionals Association’s Section 232 tracker.
The registration doesn’t say which outcome Bitdeer is seeking. Crypto industry groups have argued that mining chips should be treated differently. In comments filed in the Commerce investigation in May 2025, the Crypto Council for Innovation asked that any import restrictions exclude digital-asset mining application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, and the mining rigs built around them, saying tariffs would undermine U.S. leadership in the industry without addressing the security concerns behind the investigation.
Bitdeer’s U.S. footprint
Bitdeer, which trades on Nasdaq as BTDR, is “headquartered in Singapore” and has data centers in the United States, Norway and Bhutan, according to its January 2026 operations update. That release listed U.S. sites in Rockdale, Texas (563 megawatts online), Knoxville, Tenn., Wenatchee, Wash., and Massillon, Ohio, plus development sites in Clarington and Niles, Ohio.
The company designs its own SEALMINER mining chips and rigs. In the same release it said it had taped out a new chip for mining Litecoin and Dogecoin, and that preparations for its U.S. factory were “progressing, with the lease signed and construction permit application submitted to local municipal authorities.” The factory is in a leased building in Sparks, Nev., TheEnergyMag reported in December 2025, citing the developer, Dermody Properties. The company has also said it is converting several mining sites to artificial intelligence data centers.
Akin’s lobbying practice
Akin is one of Washington’s highest-earning lobbying firms. It reported $65.5 million in lobbying revenue in 2025 and $54.7 million in the first three quarters of 2026, up from $49.2 million in the same period of 2025, according to an Inquisitor tally of the firm’s quarterly LDA reports. Those figures are firm revenue, not anyone’s pay.
Morrow and Fawkner are both listed as new lobbyists on the Bitdeer account. Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, registrants must list lobbyists’ covered government positions held within the previous 20 years, which is why both former roles appear in the filing. The filing does not list which agencies or congressional offices the firm will contact; that information appears in quarterly reports.
The Inquisitor’s earlier coverage of Akin’s lobbying practice is on our K Street Power page.
Featured photo: A bitcoin mining facility, 2014; not a Bitdeer site. (Marko Ahtisaari / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)
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