The Hidden Wealth Code: Ethereum Soars, Graphics Cards Sell Out, Chip Stocks Hit New Highs
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The Hidden Wealth Code: Ethereum Soars, Graphics Cards Sell Out, Chip Stocks Hit New Highs
On major e-commerce platforms, graphics cards have become in short supply.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
The slogan refers to GPU mining rigs. Recently, the surge in DeFi and skyrocketing prices of Ethereum tokens have made graphics cards hot again.
“No stock left—it’s all been snapped up by miners.” This is the reply DeepTide TechFlow received when contacting several graphics card vendors. On major e-commerce platforms, GPUs have become extremely difficult to purchase.
It's not just the mining community buzzing—stock prices of two GPU manufacturers, NVIDIA and AMD, are also surging. AMD hit a new high of $85.31, while NVIDIA reached its highest level in nearly 20 years at $451.47.
Ethereum price surges, GPUs sold out, chipmakers hitting record highs—Is this explosive market driven by the butterfly effect of DeFi mania?
GPU Price Surge
“There's over 10,000 yuan worth of ETH just sitting there. What’s comforting is that my GPUs from two years ago are now appreciating in value,” said Gu Bin.
Last year, if miners talked about Ethereum, the conversation usually veered off quickly. But in August this year, Ethereum broke past $400, reaching its highest level since 2018. "Many miners have started discussing GPU mining, especially for Ethereum."
In 2018, Gu Bin bought 600 P104 GPUs at 600 yuan each—a mining-specific card from NVIDIA based on GTX1080/1060 chips. Two years later, each card had risen to 900 yuan.
Over these two years, aside from serving as a two-year wealth management product with a 50% return rate, these GPU miners have also generated countless Ether coins.
"GPUs are going crazy in price," Ravie, an Ethereum miner seller, told TechFlow. In the past half-month, the GTX 1660S rose from 1,300 yuan to 1,700 yuan, and the A-card 588 jumped from 900 yuan to 1,300 yuan—"and still no stock available."
"GPUs are rising again damn it—now completely unaffordable," complained one gamer. Recently, fewer people have been building gaming PCs.
TechFlow contacted the top five sellers of A-card 588 on Taobao. Except for one shop quoting 2,699 yuan (about double the market price), all others said they were sold out—"inventory is tight across the entire internet."
Unlike ASIC miners, Ethereum GPU miners can be resold and recycled by computer markets or internet cafes, giving them relatively higher residual value. According to a widely circulated online message, AMD GPU residual value reaches 40%, while NVIDIA GPUs can retain up to 60%.
"GPU mining rigs hold their value well and involve fewer scams," summarized Gu Bin. Therefore, the floor for GPU miners is much higher than that of Bitcoin miners. Even during bear markets, new GPU-mineable altcoins occasionally emerge with decent returns—"at least you won't end up with nothing left."
If the game and esports industries support the lower bound of GPU prices, then what sets the upper limit?
Support Behind GPU Prices
The surge in GPU mining stems from Ethereum's meteoric rise, which is often attributed to the DeFi boom.
Total market cap of DeFi tokens increased tenfold within three months. The price of Ethereum tokens also surpassed its previous highs since 2019.
According to PAData statistics, Gas Prices have increased eightfold this year. In fiat terms, transaction gas fees on-chain have surged 16-fold, averaging $1.92 per transaction.
All thanks to DeFi.
Take Uniswap, the hottest platform in DeFi, as an example. Driven by wealth effects, daily transfers can reach up to 80,000 transactions. To expedite trades, gas fees can spike to $150. According to incomplete estimates, over $8 million in fees are spent daily on Uniswap alone.
Miner earnings from Ethereum mining, excluding two brief incidents of exorbitant fees near June 10, have recently reached new highs.
Besides DeFi, the popularity of Filecoin has also pushed up GPU prices. With massive fundraising behind the Filecoin token, the project’s valuation has exceeded $1 billion.
Filecoin mining rigs include CPU, GPU (graphics card), motherboard, hard drive, and memory—essentially similar to a high-performance PC. Currently, there are approximately 200–300 Filecoin rig vendors.
In addition to relying heavily on AMD processors, most Filecoin miners use 2080Ti GPUs to generate proof-of-space-time during mining.
Since the beginning of this year, 2080Ti-related GPUs have risen from 6,000 yuan to around 9,000 yuan.
On another front, reduced GPU production has directly contributed to price hikes.
Media reports indicate that NVIDIA plans to gradually discontinue its RTX 20 series GPU chips, with July supply being only two-thirds of June's volume—the reason being that NVIDIA's next-generation RTX series graphics cards are about to launch.
Recently, manufacturers received news from NVIDIA that GPU supply in Q3 will significantly decrease, amounting to only 70% of Q2 levels, meaning GPUs will remain in a price-increasing trend.
Zhang Li, co-founder of Langshen Mining Machines, told TechFlow that recently AMD canceled discounts for all AIBs (authorized partners). Previously, AMD offered a $30 rebate per chip to AIBs.
Zhang Li added that both NVIDIA and AMD are consciously limiting excessive purchases by the mining industry to avoid negative impacts on the consumer market.
"I dare say GPU miners are definitely the most profitable among all mining machines," said Gu Bin, explaining the direct cause behind the sharp rise in GPU prices—even chipmakers are now intervening.
The sky has fallen for Bitcoin miners, but the blue sky stands tall for GPU miners.
Wealth Code
Over the past month, the Ethereum token has risen over 75%, currently trading at $397, breaking its highest level since 2019.
Even those Bitcoin mining tycoons who once sat atop the mining food chain, managing operations worth billions, have had to shift their stance toward GPU mining.
"We’re considering switching to GPU mining too," said one Bitcoin mining farm owner, noting that after Bitcoin halving, many peers sold off their farms and prepared to switch industries.
"Currently, the payback period for Bitcoin mining could take 600 days, whereas using Ethereum mining reduces it to just 200 days," said Gu Bin. Ethereum mining breaks even in about one-third the time of Bitcoin mining, meaning profits come faster.
As previously reported by TechFlow, most coal-powered mining farms in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia were idle. Now, some of these facilities have been filled with GPU mining rigs.
Currently, assuming electricity costs 0.35 yuan per kWh, certain mainstream Ethereum miners generate daily net profits exceeding 90 yuan, with electricity costs accounting for less than 20%.
Source: SparkPool
Ethereum miners fall into two categories: DIY GPU miners and custom-built GPU miners.
Most people outside the industry commonly see DIY GPU miners, while within the sector, customized GPU miners like Antminer E7 and Innosilicon A10 are more prevalent.
On July 14, Bitmain launched a new Ethereum miner, the E7, with average hash rate of 500M–550M per unit. According to Antminer Sentinel website data, around a thousand E7 units were detected at the time.
BlockBeats analyzed that due to the small scale of under 1,000 units, the E7 might not go on public sale and may only be used internally in Bitmain's own mining farms. Later, Wu Blockchain confirmed that the E7 would not be sold publicly.
"Profitable machines are kept for internal use; only risky, unprofitable ones are marketed and sold," joked Gu Bin.
For newcomers looking to enter, is now still a good time to get into Ethereum mining?
Can You Still Get On Board?
As of market close on August 5 Eastern Time, AMD shares stood at $85.31, a post-2000 high, while NVIDIA reached $451.47—its all-time peak.
Those benefiting aren’t limited to chip manufacturers—early-entering Ethereum miners have also profited handsomely.
One Ethereum miner told TechFlow that since setting up his mining operation in April, he has already broken even through mined coins and selling second-hand GPUs—"everything mined from now on is pure profit."
After a wave of people cashing in big, is Ethereum mining still worth entering?
TechFlow analyzes that currently, there are three reasons supporting entry:
Ethereum maintains stable mining difficulty and output;
Ethereum is the leading-value public blockchain, commercially viable, with the top-ranked on-chain applications;
Ethereum’s DAG file grows by 512M annually. Current VRAM usage is 3.752GB. By year-end, nearly 40% of miners with less than 4GB VRAM will face retirement, causing a significant drop in Ethereum’s network hashrate and increasing mining rewards (in coin terms).
Reportedly, the Ethash algorithm consumes GPU VRAM, requiring verification data of new blocks to include cryptographic information from all prior blocks—meaning the DAG file is stored in VRAM during mining.
For instance, the Innosilicon A10 has only 5GB VRAM, facing potential “retirement” risks within two years. "We haven’t heard about a 6GB upgrade, and demand for DDR6 or HBM memory remains unavoidable. Innosilicon’s current GDDR technology isn’t very mature," said an industry insider.
Conversely, there are also three arguments against entering mining:
Coin prices have already risen—bottom-feeding opportunities are gone. 'Buying machines after price surges makes you a hero'—but more likely, a bag holder;
GPU mining has a higher barrier to entry, more complex setup compared to ASIC miners, lower stability, and poses greater operational challenges;
Ethereum 2.0 is coming, transitioning from PoW to PoS. However, official sources state that after the upgrade, ETH 1.0 will continue operating for another 3–5 years, so current Ethereum miners can keep mining for a while. Nevertheless, buying new machines now carries significant risk.
Zhang Li calculated that purchasing new mining equipment today would take roughly 10 to 12 months to break even.
According to TechFlow’s calculation, taking a second-hand P104 8-GPU rig priced at 10,000 yuan as an example, with electricity at 0.35 yuan per kWh, SparkPool shows a daily net profit of 75 yuan—breaking even in about three and a half months.
"That's not how it actually works," analyzed Gu Bin from experience. "Don't buy mining rigs during bull markets—they're just bags waiting to be carried, same as in the crypto world."
A recent case is the Antminer K5. On March 2, the Antminer K5, priced at 9,800 yuan, was released—2,700 units sold out within two minutes. Marketed exclusively for mining Nervos Network’s CKB token, it boasted “2,000 yuan daily earnings, break even in five days.”
But when miners finally received their K5 units in mid-April, ready to start mining, CKB experienced “hashrate explosion upon explosion.” Today, the Antminer K5 generates only about 30 yuan per day.
Could the same fate await Ethereum mining rigs? We refrain from further judgment, but slogans like “break even in X days” are often just marketing talk—after all, only a few truly profit from such surging markets.
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