Bitcoin’s Price Drives Up Mining Equipment Costs by 30%

Bitcoin’s recent price rise has increased mining equipment costs; The Huaqiangbei district of Shenzhen, a global hub for crypto hardware, saw a significant 30% price increase.

According to a report by Wen Wei Po, the price of Antminer S21 335T, a mining device, has now reached $5,600 or around RMB 40,700, an increase of 30% to RMB 28,000 compared to last year’s price of $3,836.19. reached. Demand is much higher for the Antminer S21 XP, a raw mining device with water cooling facilities, which continues to be out of stock on Bitmain’s official website.

Huaqiangbei traders are reporting a surge in bulk orders, with buyers from Russia, the United States and Canada purchasing hundreds or thousands of units. This demand is driven by the rising price of Bitcoin (BTC), causing mining businesses to become more lucrative despite the higher equipment costs.

Hong Kong has become an important export center

The ban on cryptocurrency mining in China in 2021 caused mining machine transactions to be routed through Hong Kong due to Hong Kong’s free trade environment and ease of logistics. Traders in Shenzhen said most new mining equipment was exported through Hong Kong, benefiting from Hong Kong’s status as a way station for international trade. Cross-border logistics services can deliver mining machines to Hong Kong on the same day, and the machines can then be shipped for domestic and international air and sea transportation.

In the $100k to $108k range, BTC mining difficulty has reached an all-time high. According to TheMinerMag, around 1:33 UTC on December 16, the mining difficulty adjustment at block height 874,944 increased by 4.43% and reached an all-time high of 108.52 trillion.

According to Hashrate Index data, the average hashrate of the network in the last 14 days reached 771 EH/s, while the seven-day moving average was above 800 EH/s. This record hash difficulty and drop in hash price reflects the macro impact of BTC’s price increase on the mining economy. It confirms alleged hardware shortages and price increases and also provides insight into global competition among miners. While mining-related activities in any form are expressly banned by mainland China, the legal framework in Hong Kong allows the sale and export of mining hardware, allowing traders to meet this global demand.