According to data, there is a surge in interest in Russia for crypto mining equipment. This increased interest is for both new and used equipment. In 2021, the demand for ASIC machines witnessed a huge jump. There is also a shortage of video cards leading to a price rise.
Demand Surge
The surge for the mining devices has gone up 14 times year-on-year as reported on local classifies site Avito.ru. The search for Whatsminer mining rigs, manufactured by the Chinese firm Microbt, that normally cost about $1600, increased 23 times. Similarly, the search for Antminers increased 11 times compared to last year.
Data for 2021 shows that the sale of crypto mining devices on ozone.ru has grown 13 times in numbers and 14 times in value over the last year.
Moscow has led the demand. Demand is also high in other cities such as St Petersburg and in the regions of Krasnodar, Tatarstan, and Sverdlovsk. The demand in the smaller cities is surprising given that the electricity rates in these regions are high.
Future Outlook
The global shortage in chips has meant that the prices of GPUs used in the mining of ETH have also been driven up. Consequently, although the sales of GPUs fell by 15.8%, in value terms, the market grew 129.6%.
Till the time the crypto farms generate good income, the shortage in the supply of mining devices is likely to persist. However, it is expected the delivery time will reduce, by 2023, from the current 48-50 weeks to 10-14 weeks.
Energy-rich Russia is a favored destination for crypto miners. China is cracking down on crypto mining. A report in FT revealed that the majority of the mining devices are therefore moving from China to Russia.
