Crypto mining may be easing up in China if recent listings are a reflection of the crypto market in the region. PC builders in the region recently spotted a lot of powerful Nvidia and AMD cards for sale at a reduced rate and it may be a sign of things to come.
Taiwanese PC builders recently spotted tons of high-end GPUs for sale in China and they were heavily discounted. A screenshot was recently spotted on a mining group posted to a popular Taiwanese bulletin board known as PTT that unveiled the cheap GPU prices. The post showed a significant number of GPUs being sold on the Chinese private seller's market which includes Nvidia and AMD cards of various levels.
Cryptominers in China are apparently selling off a large sum of Nvidia and AMD GPUs, including the latest 30-series and 6000-series, but even other older GPU generations. This includes AMD's already cheaper Polaris generation. An RTX 3070 reportedly sold for hundreds of Hong Kong Dollars through this spike in GPU sales when typically the card would cost around $3,120. These sellers may have once used the powerful GPUs to mine cryptocurrencies and are trying to make a quick buck.
Companies such as Nvidia are starting to clamp down on the crypto mining situation, implementing tech that limits the ability to mine crypto efficiently. With these changes coming to newer cards, older cards like the GPUs listed in China may be more appealing to crypto miners than PC gamers. With GPUs of various strengths included in the influx of cheaper cards on the Chinese private market, PC gamers of various levels may find the card they're looking for among the others.
China also began to crack down on crypto mining and cryptocurrency recently, and the influx of powerful GPUs may reflect immediate results. Private sellers typically follow supply and demand just like many markets and these cards being sold at such a reduced rate may reflect a change in China's crypto mining. All of these recent changes to policy and technology may result in more powerful GPUs being sold at a discount in other regions as they are in China.
While recent changes to cryptocurrency laws in China may have led to this recent influx of powerful GPUs being sold, it hasn't been reflected in other areas. With Nvidia implementing crypto limiters in new cards, PC gamers in other regions may also see the market ease up soon. Chip shortages have contributed to reduced stock in various aspects of life and GPUs have been impacted, but it looks like the private market's pricing may be going down. This influx of Nvidia and AMD cards in China may help those companies keep up with the demand for high-end cards in the region.