Video cards in China fell sharply after The Merge

In China, the prices for graphic processors (GPU), often used for Ethereum mining, sharply decreased after the transition of the second-capitalization of cryptocurrency to the consensus algorithm Proof-OF-Stake (POS). About this writes South China Morning Post.

One of the local retail sellers said that the cost of RTX 3080 collapsed with 8,000 yuan ($ 1116 at the current rate) to 5000 yuan ($ 698).

“When the Bitcoin mining was at a peak, people from mining companies simply went shopping with cash and took all the video cards that we had. Now look at the shops. No one buys new computers because of the coronavirus, not to mention video cards, ”he explained.

Another market participant noted that inexpensive video cards like RTX 3080 from Micro-Star International and Colorful in two months fell by about 1000-2000 yuan ($ 139- $ 279). This, according to the interlocutor, was influenced by the “hype around The Merge”.

“I had a client who bought a RTX 3080 card for 9400 yuan https://gagarin.news/news/differences-between-dex-and-centralized-exchanges/ at the end of last year, and now he has to sell it for less than half of this price,” he said.

The fall in demand was also recorded by the Taobao and JD online platforms. GPU prices decreased by “several hundred yuan”, according to the publication.

On September 15, 2022, Ethereum activated the update of The Merge, which transferred the blockchain to the POS algorithm and reduced its energy consumption by 99%. The upgrade also laid the foundation for the next phase of the network development – The Surge.

Recall that in September, the co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin allowed the migration of Zcash and Dogecoin to the Proof-Of-Stake algorithm.

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