Updated 8 Feb. 2017: This post is updated to include more price fluctuation details of miners.
After hitting a record-high of $20,000 last December, the price of bitcoin has plunged below the $6,000 mark today for the first time since October 2017. However, Bitcoin investors are not the only ones who suffer from the tumble, miner sellers at China’s largest maker fair Huaqiangbei also find themselves are having a hard time selling the specialized mining equipment(in Chinese).
Lots of gadget sellers in the market have hoarded Bitcoin miners on bullish prospects of the market last year. But no one expected the cryptocurrency mania to cool off this fast and turn these risk takers into victims of the extremely volatile market.
Bitcoin miner maker Bitmain launched its latest product Antminer A3 at RMB 20,800 ($3,310) apiece in domestic market and $2,300 in global market when it’s first released on January 17, 2018. Just after launch, the device was on sale for RMB 45,000 at Huaqiangbei, but with the price of Bitcoin dropping, the mining device has dropped to RMB 30,000 in the gadget market.
In addition to sellers, the tide also affects bitcoin makers. Bitmain has opened the second batch of Antminer A3 for online ordering with plans to ship the product in mid-March. The two batches are exactly the same in configuration, but the second batch is priced at RMB7,200, roughly a third of its predecessor.
The crash comes amid a continuing global crypto rout. Ethereum has dropped by more than 44% last week to $636 at the time of this writing.