Bloomberg: Bitcoin Miners Face Chip Shortage Amid Surging Demand

彭博社

Read this article in 4 Minutes

The chip shortage has significantly impacted the Bitcoin mining hardware supply chain.

Original Title: "Bloomberg: Bitcoin Miners Facing Chip Shortage Due to Soaring Demand"

Original Source: Cointelegraph Chinese

According to Reuters on Friday, the chip shortage has significantly impacted the Bitcoin mining hardware distribution chain.

In fact, as per information on Bitmain's website, by August 2021, the inventory of Bitmain, one of the major Bitcoin miners, had been sold out. In addition to the inventory shortage, Bitmain's mining machine prices are now highly inflated.

For example, as early as November 2020, the Antminer S19 was priced at $1897 per unit. As of the writing of this article, the same company has priced it at $2767 on its website, a 45% increase.

Alex Ao, Vice President of the semiconductor manufacturer Innosilicon, stated in an interview with Reuters, "There are not enough chips to support the production of mining machines."

Reportedly, the limited mining machine supply has been acquired by major mining companies in North America. Back in 2020, U.S. mining giants like Riot Blockchain, Bitfarms, and Marathon significantly increased their inventory by purchasing a large number of mining machines from Bitmain and competitor MicroBT.

The capacity expansion even took place during Bitcoin's quadrennial halving. Therefore, despite China still dominating the global hashrate distribution, interests in North American mining are reportedly "squeezing the supply to China."

Chinese miners have recently faced significant challenges, including the 2020 frozen card storm, which left some miners unable to pay for electricity. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, authorities in Yunnan Province, China, also cut off power supply to miners in the region.

Smaller mining companies are also at risk of being phased out by the market. The hardware markup, coupled with the reduced block rewards, greatly impacts their profitability, even for second-hand mining machines.

Other industries relying on semiconductors have begun to feel the effects of the persistent shortage. Automakers like Ford have already announced the closure of some factories.