Bitcoin’s Great Fire Sale 💸

by

One learns, with a weary sigh, that the digital gold rush has hit a rather damp patch. Bitmain, purveyors of those industrious little machines that pretend to ‘mine’ Bitcoin – a process about as glamorous as sifting through sand for fool’s gold 🙄 – has, it appears, been having a bit of a clear-out. Pricing lists, leaked from the shadowy recesses of the industry, reveal a quite drastic reduction in the cost of their, shall we say, hardware. It’s all tied, naturally, to dwindling profits and a rather alarming surplus of blinking lights and humming fans.

The cuts are rather breathtaking, bringing some of the more sophisticated units perilously close to the point where the operators might actually avoid utter ruin. Of course, this assumes they aren’t also paying for heating the entire of Siberia with their operation.

Following that rather dull event in April – the ‘halving’, they call it; sounds like a church fête, doesn’t it? – where the reward for all this digital digging was halved, the sensible miners have turned to windmills and sunshine to keep their electricity bills down. How quaint. Sadly, even with the soothing rationale of renewable energy, things haven’t gone to plan.

Bitcoin, after briefly flirting with the frankly preposterous figure of $126,000 in October, decided to have a bit of a lie-down in November, plummeting to a mere $80,000. One suspects a bad hangover was involved. 🥂

S19e XP Hydro And Bundle Deals

Apparently, the S19e XP Hydro and the 3U S19 XP Hydro are being offered at a positively giveaway price – roughly $3 per TH/s in those deeply mysterious ‘factory sales’. A steal, one might think, if one weren’t already dreadfully suspicious. 🕵️ The S19 XP+ Hydro lingers nearby at $4/TH/s, while the older models – bless their obsolete circuits – are fetching a rather pathetic $7 to $8 per TH/s. Even a desperate auction saw bids starting near $5.5 for a S19k Pro. Such desperation!

Mining Margins Squeeze Operators

Mining income is, it seems, at a level not seen since before everyone decided Bitcoin was the future. This has caused a great deal of hand-wringing, a reassessment of expansion plans with previously approved budgets, and a frantic search for cheaper machinery-or, failing that, a more amenable landlord.

Bitmain’s apparent strategy appears to be a rapid expulsion of stock, regardless of profit. Some miners report the price cuts miraculously transform previously doomed investments into something barely viable — as long as the power supply doesn’t bankrupt them first, and, crucially, Bitcoin remembers to go back up.

Market Reaction And Secondary Sales

The used-gear market did what one might expect: panicked a bit and lowered its prices still further, creating a cascade of diminishing returns and a flurry of frantic transactions. Auctions and bulk sales are now commonplace, a clear sign that manufacturers are attempting to offload excess stock without the embarrassment of frankly public discounts. Very discreet.

The smaller operators are, naturally, delighted. The larger ones are adopting a wait-and-see approach, pondering whether to purchase new units or simply postpone the inevitable reckoning.

Competition And Industry Context

The reports suggest a general malaise across the entire sector, not merely Bitmain’s exclusive woes. Competitors are adjusting their offerings accordingly, and the secondhand market is positively groaning under the weight of unwanted machines. 📦

The result? A rapidly aging fleet of miners, with the efficient being replaced at an increasing rate and the obsolete consigned to the scrapyard or sold to unsuspecting enthusiasts. Hashprice – that rather dismal metric measuring revenue per TH/s – is wallowing at multi-year lows. A recovery seems unlikely unless Bitcoin stages a dramatic comeback or electricity becomes free (one can dream!).

For the short term, these cheaper rigs may provide a momentary reprieve for those fortunate enough to have access to inexpensive power. But longer term, one anticipates a thinning of the herd, as those lacking the capital to stay afloat-drift into quiet desperation. Oh, the sweet irony.

Read More

2025-12-27 17:05