Ethereum (and Bitcoin) prices are finally in free fall, dropping to their lowest value since Jan 2021 in one of the largest cryptocurrency debacles of recent history. Ethermining farms have come to a halt across the Americas and Europe as the cost of mining the virtual currency with graphics cards is now higher than buying it from an exchange. At the time of writing, the price of Ether was a shaky $1,206 and is expected to dip below the $1,000 mark in the next 48 hours.
An RTX 3080 Ti which is one of the best mining GPUs nets a profit of just $1.3 per day while consuming 300-350W of power. Looking at the prices of electricity in the US, we can see that it mainly varies from 10-20 cents per Kilowatt-hour. That results in a daily bill of $1 to $1.75 depending on where you live. If you’re based in New England, then you’re paying as much as $2 per day for powering a single RTX 3080 Ti, and in turn, you get just over half of it in Ether. Essentially you’re losing money rather than earning it if you’re mining Ether in certain states.
So, there you have it. eBay already has plenty of used RTX 3080s and 3080 Tis going under the MSRP. The former starts at $610 while the latter can be had for as low as $860.
NVIDIA’s LHR nerf may have failed but the ultimate crypto-nerf is finally here, and it’s only gonna get better from here on for gamers.
No wonder NVIDIA delayed the RTX 40 series launch. The chipmaker must expect prices to drop even further in the coming months.
