April has been a good month, not just for Bitcoin but for all cryptocurrencies. Some have been greater beneficiaries of a renewed interest in cryptocurrencies and the buoyancy in the market has made sure that the optimism has come back in full force.
Old Antminers making a comeback
Since the price of Bitcoin has shot up, buying and using older Antminers is now becoming profitable again. In fact, it’s becoming so profitable that the price of secondhand miners has doubled in the last week alone.
The bump from $4000 to $5000 dollars has seen older machines attain a payback period of fewer than two hundred days. This number has always been more or less of a benchmark for most miners to get into (or back into) the mining game. Micheal Zhong, a market analyst at TokenInsights, says that once the 200-day barrier was broken the buying frenzy started and it won’t stop until the prices have increased enough to push the payback period to over 200 days.
Darius Sharif Samani, an independent miner and equipment broker in China says that he was able to buy an old Antminer S9 for just under $140 dollars in March. These miners are capable of 14TH/s (Terahashes per second). Currently, he says, the price of the same machine on the secondhand market is $250, almost double what he paid in March. There is an advanced version of the Antminer S9 that does 14.5TH/s and that costs between $280 – $320. The $320 price point is something of a barrier for most people, says Samani.
At $320 for a machine, it works out to $22 per terahash, and that is where most people see the sweet point being for these older machines at this point of time.
Suspicions regarding wholesalers
Samani has said that certain wholesalers of mining rigs have said that they are out of stock. As per him, he has not seen this happen in a long time. He doesn’t believe that they are truly out of stock, rather that they are waiting for a slight bump in Bitcoin prices to sell their inventory for much higher prices.
“Some are waiting until a bidding war for some models to start,” Samani said knowing that such wholesalers are squeezing out the individual miners. This leaves only the well-capitalized companies to compete for machines.
There is also another factor that might not have to do with Bitcoin’s price at all… and it is the incoming cheap hydropower that will be available during the summer. China has a water abundant summer and power will be very cheap soon enough.
All of this is leading to a summer of record-breaking hashing on the Bitcoin network. The previous hashing record was 60 EH/s, but many are expecting this summer to see the 70 EH/s point breached. This would mean an extra 700 thousand older machines pit into circulation or 200 newer machines such as the Antminer S17.
Whatever happens, this summer will be an interesting watch to see how much computing power will be available in the Bitcoin network.
Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.