Nvidia RTX 3060 GPUs are going for as low as $270 as crypto miners in China dump their cards on the used market amidst the nation’s Bitcoin crackdowns.
Cheap Used Nvidia RTX GPUs Flood The Chinese Market As Miners Dump
As China continues cracking down on Bitcoin and mining in the country, some miners have decided to migrate out of the country, while others are selling off their mining hardware like GPUs on the used market.
Thousands of these GPUs, both AMD and Nivdia brands, are now flooding the second-hand market. The models include not only the latest architectures (Ampere and RDNA2), but also the older generations like Pascal and Polaris.
Related Reading | Top Bitcoin Miner Predicts Bleak Crypto Future In China
Since there is an overabundance of cards, the prices have naturally gone down a lot. For example, the RTX 3060 GPU was spotted on an online website for just $270 a piece. Others like the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060ti were sold for around $400 and $350 respectively.
However, something to note here is that these graphics cards aren’t being sold unit by unit. Buyers need to get at least anywhere from 100 to 200 units depending on the conditions of the seller.
Nvidia and AMD GPUs on sale by crypto miners | Source: The Block
One seller has even put up RTX 3060 laptops that they were using for mining purposes, for around $1000 per unit.
Despite the low prices, these GPUs aren’t exactly selling quick. In fact, prices are only going down as miners are having a hard time selling them.
Related Reading | Western Bitcoin Miners Win Big During China Crackdown
There are a few reasons behind that. One maybe that since these sellers are only selling in bulk, so not everyone can buy these.
Another reason could be that as these GPUs have been used 24/7 overclocked for mining, their age is sure to be shortened.
While China continues these crackdowns on miners, they have started the push for digital Yuan in this new void left by crypto.
The global GPU shortage has started to ease up somewhat as a few countries like Germany are seeing as much as a 40% drop in prices.
Ether’s push for Proof-of-Stake (PoS) will also make graphics cards more available for gamers. The Nvidia CEO, Jensen, commented on this in an interview that took place around the E3.
Bitcoin Price
At the time of writing, BTC is floating around $33k, up almost 2% in the past 24 hours. But the crypto is down a little under 1% over the last week.
Here is a chart noting the trend in its value:
BTC's price doesn't seem to be improving | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Bitcoin still hasn’t been able to break the $35k resistance line as the range bound market continues. It’s unclear right now which direction the market will go from here.