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For a long time, the heart of the cryptocurrency mining industry has been Nvidia gaming chips, used by crypto “miners” for their computational power. Now that cryptocurrencies have lost much of their value, the prices of chips are falling. Bloomberg’s Cecilia D’Anastasio and Ian King report:
The turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry has ravaged portfolios and left large and small investors struggling to adapt. It’s also taken a toll on a corner of the tech world that once benefited from crypto’s rise: Nvidia Corp. graphics cards.
Long popular with computer gaming nerds, these cards enjoyed a second life during the crypto boom as an essential component of the systems that generate digital coins. Even as Nvidia tried to limit its exposure to the industry, the crypto rally had helped send prices of the company’s products soaring on secondary markets like EBay.
Now that’s changed. With the value of currencies plummeting, miners see less of a need for expensive computer hardware. Their interest is expected to dwindle further as the popular Ethereum blockchain network shifts to a new method called “proof of stake” that won’t require the same heavy-duty computer processing.
By one estimate, more than a third of the consumer graphics-card market could vanish as crypto enthusiasts abandon the technology. And the products are piling up on EBay’s site and other marketplaces. Though Nvidia’s suggested retail price for the cards hasn’t changed, they’re selling for 50% less on secondary markets than they did in recent months.
“People don’t want to buy GPUs knowing it’s potentially going to be obsolete in two quarters,” said Tristan Gerra, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. “We believe that crypto-related purchases have steadily declined.”
A graphics card is a component that fits into a personal computer and converts code into images that can be displayed on a monitor. It’s outfitted with chips known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, which can improve how a PC renders a game.
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