Bitcoin's Rise Causes Shortage of Mining Rigs, Most Units Sold Out, Miners Concerned About Supply

NFT Jan 25, 2023 0 190 Add to Reading List

While the bitcoin economy has swelled in value, the overall network hashrate has gradually climbed higher as miners are making a lot of money confirming blocks. However, obtaining bitcoin mining rigs isn’t so easy these days, and regional reports from China indicate a great number of ASIC manufacturers are sold out for months. Moreover, because of the clear shortage, bitcoin mining rigs being sold on secondary markets have seen values increase by 30-40% per machine.

Bitcoin Mining Rigs in China Sell Out, Miners Grow Worried About Future Supply

Bitcoin mining is extremely competitive, as massive operations with warehouses filled with application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) devices are pointing hashrate at the BTC chain in order to profit. Bitcoin (BTC) prices per unit increased in value a great deal this year and touched an all-time price high on a variety of exchanges worldwide on November 30, 2020.

Meanwhile, the price has kept the overall SHA256 hashrate (Bitcoin’s mining algorithm) running high, as the BTC network is currently capturing 135 exahash per second on Friday afternoon (EST).

Most of the major bitcoin mining rig manufacturers worldwide have sold out of all of their units. Innosilicon’s webshop shows that all the SHA256-compatible miners are out of stock.

Just recently, Chinese financial columnist, Vincent He, reported that while BTC prices are skyrocketing, “bitcoin miners are sold out.” The report from China notes that presently both “new and old bitcoin mining machines have gained a 30-40% increase” in value. Further, while interviewing “some core mining practitioners in China,” the author explained that miners are growing worried there might not be enough machines.

Vincent He further concluded that people suspect “large-scale institutional buyers” are eating up all the machines. This has been a consistent trend in 2020, as news.Bitcoin.com reported on multiple mining operations like Marathon Group, Hut8, and Riot Blockchain purchasing vast quantities of ASIC miners.

Major Bitcoin Mining Rig Manufacturers Shipping Lead Times 3-6 Months Out

While looking at the major ASIC mining rig manufacturers’ websites one can see that most units are indeed sold out. Bitmain’s latest two models, the Antminer series S19s both 84 to 95 terahash per second (TH/s) are sold out. Not to mention the fact that the batches are not shipping until May 2021. Similarly, Bitmain’s competitor, Microbt’s Whatsminer machines are also unavailable to ship for the next four months.

Every Microbt model is 120 days out from shipping after the payment according to the company’s mining rig webshop.

This includes the popular Whatsminer M30S series and lower models between 88 to 100TH/s. The firm’s latest ASIC bitcoin mining rig, the Whatsminer M30S++ (112TH/s) is also 120 days out until the next shipment. These bitcoin mining rigs made by Microbt and Bitmain are not only sold out but they are the world’s top-performing models in terms of profits today.

Ebang’s models also have a shipping lead time of around 3-3.5 months after the payment.

Looking at the web portal from the ASIC rig manufacturer Ebang shows that every model sold won’t be shipped until “3-3.5 months after payment.” Canaan buyers have to inquire with the company’s message system in order to purchase ASIC mining rigs.

It is uncertain whether or not Canaan has miners available to sell, but the company recently announced the launch of a new Avalonminer. Although the latest Avalonminer 1246 Pro (90TH/s) won’t be sold on the open market until January 2021. Another top manufacturing company on the list of profitable mining rigs is Innosilicon, but the firm’s webshop explains that every model that mines BTC have all sold out.

Every single SHA256 Antminer series Bitmain sells is also out of stock and the last batch says shipments will go out in May.

Secondary Markets Sell ASICs for a Premium

Nearly all the top bitcoin mining manufacturers worldwide that produce ASIC rigs seem to be out of stock for at least a few months. A few ASIC manufacturing competitors do have some lower terahash units available like the Chinese operation Strongu. The firm recently released the Strongu Hornbill H8 Pro (84Th/s) and the website does say “shipping within 1-week order confirmation.”

Of course, users can leverage secondary markets like Ebay or vendors that specialize in buying bulk ASICs to sell on the open market. As of right now, most of these units being sold by non-official bitcoin mining rig dealers carry a significant premium.