The prices of ASICs, the miners of Bitcoin (BTC), reported their eighth straight week of declines, a trend that has dragged on since mid-January and leaves specialized hardware at average prices of up to $10,000 for state-of-the-art equipment. generation.
I agree with you data Offered by Hashrate Index, ASIC prices vary from USD 22 to USD 89 for each Terahash invested in the network, depending on the equipment used to mine Bitcoin.
To determine the drop, Hashrate Index separated the different ASICs that exist in the market into three groups. He discriminated them based on their energy efficiency and showed the prices on average, calculating the nominal hashrate production of the equipment.
In detail, the group of ASICs with an efficiency of less than 38 J/TH, which represents the latest generation miners, such as the Antminer S19 (95 TH/s), S19j Pro (100 TH/s) and S19 Pro ( 110 TH/s) from Bitmain and the Whatsminer M30s (90 TH/s), M30s+ (102 TH/s) and M30s++ (112 TH/s) from MicroBT, They have an average price of USD 89.41 for each Terahash (TH) invested.
Another group, with an efficiency of 38 J/TH to 68 J/TH, includes Bitmain’s Antminer S17 (56 TH/s) and T17 (40 TH/s) and Whatsminer M20 (45 TH/s), M21 (28 TH/s) and M32 (62 TH/s) from MicroBT, they have an average price of USD 58.97 for each TH.
And the last one, with an efficiency higher than 68 J/TH, where the older ASICs come in, such as the Antminer S9 (13.5 TH/S), T9 (12.5 TH/s), S11 (19.5 TH/s) and T15 (23 TH/s) from Bitmain and the Whatsminer M10 (33TH/s) from MicroBT, They have prices of USD 22.53 for each TH invested in the network.
According to the company, which has followed the price of ASICs since 2018, the cost of miners fell to a less severe degree compared to last week. In numbers, the first group had a drop in its prices of 0.47% compared to the previous week. The second of 1.30% and the third of 2.4%.
Natural movement of the ASIC market
The fall in the price of ASICs could respond to a natural movement of the market. Remember that a few months ago, the hardware was at high prices. Something that caused this inflation was the shortage of chips or semiconductors, a product of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, in November 2021, when bitcoin marked its last historical maximum of USD 67,000, the profitability of mining rose and, with it, the demand, which caused these hardware to remain on the rise until mid-January 2022, when it began. the price drop.
Now that the demand has returned to normal terms due to the drop in BTC to USD 38,000 on average and the production of chips has been somewhat regularized, the market has pushed a decrease in the prices of mining equipment.
However, it should be clarified that the drop does not translate into a significant loss in profitability or competition within the network. Bitcoin mining remains the most profitable within the cryptographic ecosystem and, added to that, the hashrate, which is the computing power to process the Bitcoin chain, remains above 209 EH/s, According to the graphs of glass node.
Ethereum hardware is also down
The drop in ASICs, which is the only equipment that can mine Bitcoin, coincides with the drop in prices that the hardware with which Ethereum and other altcoins are mined have also experienced.
As reported by CriptoNoticias a few weeks ago, video cards (GPU) reported drops of up to 11% in their prices during the second month of the year.
Coincidentally, the drop in GPU prices came after periods of high inflation, caused by the pandemic and the limitations of manufacturers to operate, because this industry was also affected by the shortage of chips.
The current situation of the hardware to mine Bitcoin and Ethereum, far from causing alarm, rather opens the doors to those who want to enter the mining market. as seen, It seems like a valuable opportunity to start devoting yourself to an industry that will prevail.