It is likely that Russian crypto miners have been increasingly purchasing ASIC devices due to the low cost of energy and the lower prices of mining devices.
As the local demand for mining hardware reportedly increased in Q4 2022, cryptocurrency miners in Russia do not appear to be bothered by the ongoing mining crisis.
The local news agency Kommersant reported on December 1 that some distributors of crypto mining hardware in Russia have experienced a significant increase in demand for mining-designed application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips.
Chilkoot, a local dealer, reported that its ASIC sales in November and October exceeded all of its Q3 sales. The distributor is said to have sold 65 percent more hardware in the last nine months than in 2021.
Artem Eremin, the development manager for Chilkoot, stated, “We are working with legal entities, and we see that they began to buy 30% more equipment in one transaction than at the beginning of the year.”
BitRiver, Russia’s largest data center for crypto mining, has also seen significant demand rise, with 150% growth over the past ten months, according to reports.
The mining industry is experiencing difficult times, with total Bitcoin BTC tickers down $16,957 and mining revenue reaching two-year lows at the end of November, according to reports.
Due to the massive losses brought on by the current bear market in cryptocurrency, a number of mining companies, including Core Scientific and Argo Blockchain, have even questioned whether they would be able to continue operating.
Due to the low cost of energy and the lower cost of mining equipment, miners in Russia have probably been hoarding crypto ASICs more and more.
According to reports, 51ASIC co-founder Mikhail Brezhnev stated that Bitcoin mining in Russia could still be profitable despite the significant decline in the price of BTC this year. The executive claims that mining 1 BTC using the most up-to-date equipment can generate approximately $11,000 at a cost of $0,07 per 1 kilowatt-hour for electricity. According to data, Bitcoin is currently trading at $16,975, a 70% decrease over the past year.
According to reports, Vladislav Antonov, a financial analyst at BitRiver, stated that the current state of the market has been advantageous to the industrial crypto mining market in Russia.
He mentioned that the wholesale market saw an increase in demand for ASIC equipment as a result of a decrease in purchase prices, which have now fallen as close as possible to the cost of production. According to reports, the expert stated that this is the best entry point for investment.
Antonov claims that a mining entry made during a bear market could potentially result in a “significant profit of tens of percent” over the course of three years.
