From $600 to $55: Prices of Mining Hardware Drop
 

Cryptomining frenzy of the recent 18 months have encouraged computer component manufacturers to develop hardware tailored for mining infrastructure. At some points earlier this year, these components retailed for hefty sums of money. As rates of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other similar currencies have dropped, so too have prices of motherboards, power supplies, and GPUs.


3050W PSUs for Mining


From $17,000 to $3,900

The period between April 2017 and April 2018 was particularly good for cryptocurrency, which stimulated many hardware companies to try their luck to design hardware aimed specifically for mining and mining infrastructre. In the recent quarters, manufacturers of motherboards have introduced special platforms featuring multiple PCIe slots; producers of PSUs launched power supplies for many graphics cards; suppliers of chassis released special-purpose stands and cases; multiple companies unveiled special-purpose turnkey mining machines, whereas some even offered to rent such systems in the cloud.

Since the peaks, Bitcoin-USD exchange rates have dropped from around $17,000 in December 2017 to $3,900 in December 2018, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum suffered the same fate and dropped from around $1,350 in January 2018 to $130 in late December 2018. With exchange rates collapsing that significantly, the interest towards mining dropped along with demand and prices of appropriate hardware.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13747...-hardware-drop