Russian retailers report a significant drop in demand and prices for video cards. In the average price segment, their cost has decreased by 40-50% over the year. In addition to reducing the profitability of bitcoin mining, one of the main reasons for the drop in demand was the transition of the second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.
According to representatives of "M.Video-Eldorado" and Ozon, the cost of video cards fell by an average of 40-50%. Marvel Distribution recorded a 20% drop.
According to one of the analysts, a general drop in global demand for computers, as well as the actual stop of mining on video cards, led to a decrease in demand for video cards. In addition, manufacturers still have significant inventories, which led to a 54% drop in prices compared to last year. Citylink expects this trend to continue.
The transition of Ethereum to PoS led to the fact that hundreds of thousands of miners were left idle, and in Asia even began selling video cards by weight, at $ 400-500 per 1 kg.
Demand for video cards in Russia fell by 20%, and the price reduction would have been tougher if it had not been adjusted by gamers. Fans of PC games were able to buy video cards at reasonable prices and balance the market.
By October, prices for Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 video cards in Russia had dropped from 500,000 to 100,000 rubles in seven months. The cost of another popular model, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, fell from 164,000 to 65,000 rubles.
At the end of October, Citylink began the first official sales of cryptocurrency mining equipment in the Russian Federation. Prices for ASIC miners from Bitmain range from 328,000 to 548,000 rubles.
