Wyden Questions Crypto Miners’ Use of Opportunity Zone Tax Breaks
- Worries mining companies aren’t providing meaningful benefits
- Reiterates calls for more transparency, tighter rules
Crypto-mining companies are the latest target of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden’s probes into whether Opportunity Zones are driving investment and job creation in low-income communities as intended.
The Republican-led 2017 tax overhaul offers capital-gains tax breaks to investors who develop real estate or fund businesses in the thousands of census tracts that have been designated as Opportunity Zones -- incentives that are meant to spur investment in economically distressed areas. Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, sent letters to Redivider Blockchain Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Argo Blockchain, and HCVT LLP Monday, asking the companies to respond to a series of questions on the crypto-mining projects in Opportunity Zones that either they or their clients are currently invested in.