Ethereum miners have invested over $15 billion on GPUs in the last 1 1/2 years and that figure is higher when you consider other components such as CPUs, PSUs, and chassis.
The original report comes from the analysts of Bitpro Consulting, which Bloomberg covered, and our pals the at Tom’s Hardware spotted. It appears that Ethereum miners could have used up around 10 percent of GPU supply in the crypto bubble over the last two years.
The increase in mining activity and the resulting GPU hoarding coincided with gaming demand, which contributed to the rapid rise in prices.
On average, a GPU cost $1,056 for a single device in 2021 as compared to only a third of what it costs in the year 2019. GPU sales amounted to $51.8 billion in the entire year 2021 according to figures from JPR.
While Ethereum mining was profitable in the past reaching its highest at the mid-2021 point, However, its value has plummeted by 70 percent this year, which is not good news for those who decided to get into mining too late.
Analysis: The impact of Ethereum mining, and more
Even in its peak, Ethereum was becoming far slower and more expensive due to it almost reaching its limit on transactions every day.
However, due to its declining value, many crypto investors have been unable to recuperate the losses incurred due to spending so much on GPUs and other components. One example, as detailed in the Bloomberg article, focuses on a man who bought $30,000 worth of cryptocurrency mining hardware in the middle of 2021, however, has only earned $5,000 thus far from cryptocurrency.
It’s not even mentioning the impact on the environment of mining, because carbon emissions have been a constant issue for cryptocurrencies. It is possible to argue that the use of the GPUs bought for mining and the environmental impact and the price of Ethereum by itself, which is declining at a rapid rate has resulted in this being nothing.