Bitcoin Mining Frenzy: Sold-Out Rigs, Chip Shortages, and GPU Extraction from Laptops

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The world of cryptocurrency mining is undergoing a seismic shift. As Bitcoin and Ethereum prices soar, miners are scrambling for hardware, supply chains are straining, and even consumer laptops are being stripped for parts. This modern-day digital gold rush mirrors the 19th-century California gold fever — except today’s prospectors wield GPUs and ASICs instead of pickaxes.

For early adopters like Peter and李文 (Li Wen), this surge isn't just profitable — it's life-changing. Li Wen invested 70,000 yuan (~$10,000) in ten secondhand mining rigs in June 2020. Today, those machines not only generate substantial Bitcoin output but have appreciated in value themselves — a rare double-win scenario.

Peter took an even bolder move back in 2019, investing around 2 million yuan (~$300,000) in 200 units of MicroBT’s M20S miners. Over time, he’s mined over 50 BTC — now worth more than 16 million yuan (~$2.5 million). After deducting electricity costs, his net profit exceeds 10 million yuan.

Both miners share a long-term conviction: Bitcoin’s value will continue rising, making mining not just a speculative play but a strategic investment.

🔧 Mining Equipment Boom: Supply Can’t Keep Up With Demand

Mining has transformed from a niche tech hobby into a high-stakes industrial operation. The demand for mining rigs has skyrocketed — and so have prices.

Just eight months ago, Beijing still had physical stores selling new and used ASIC miners at reasonable rates. Today, most of these shops have closed due to inventory shortages.

“People are now booking directly from manufacturers — often through group buys,” says Li Wen. “Even pre-production units get snapped up before leaving the factory.”

Major manufacturers like Bitmain (maker of Antminer) and Canaan (maker of Avalon) report sold-out inventories. Antminer S19 models are listed as out of stock, with delivery dates pushed to late 2021. Pre-orders for future batches are already fully booked through Q3 2021.

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In the secondary market, resale values have exploded. An Antminer S19 95T, priced at ~20,000 RMB (~$3,100) on Bitmain’s site, now sells for over 50,000 RMB (~$7,750) — more than double its original cost.

Futures contracts tell a similar story. In March 2020, the S19 futures were trading at ~13,000 RMB; by January 2021, prices hit 53,000 RMB — a quadrupling in just ten months.

Mine operators confirm the frenzy. A mining farm operator in Inner Mongolia reports that order sizes have surged from typical 50–200 unit purchases to bulk orders exceeding 1,000 units, with one client ordering 5,000 machines in a single deal.

Despite the trauma of the March 2020 "Black Thursday" crash — when Bitcoin dropped 25% in a day and over a million miners shut down — confidence has rebounded strongly. Machines once considered obsolete now sell for 20,000 RMB each.

“Compared to last year,” Li Wen notes, “miner prices have doubled or tripled — but Bitcoin’s price has increased by over 4.5x. That means faster payback periods. Instead of taking a year to break even, many rigs now pay off in under eight months.”

💻 Ethereum Mining Surge: GPUs Flying Off Shelves

While Bitcoin mining relies on specialized ASICs, Ethereum mining remains GPU-based — and that’s fueling a parallel crisis in the graphics card market.

Peter is expanding into Ethereum mining with a plan to deploy over 1,300 GPUs, purchasing them in bulk for custom-built mining rigs.

“GPUs are the pickaxes of Ethereum mining,” says Shang Silin, CEO of Mars Pool.

This massive demand helps explain why NVIDIA’s RTX 30-series and AMD’s RX 6000-series cards are nearly impossible to find at retail — often selling for double MSRP or more.

NVIDIA responded by introducing Cryptocurrency Mining Processors (CMP) — stripped-down chips without display outputs, optimized purely for mining efficiency. They also implemented hash rate limitations on consumer-grade RTX 3060 cards to discourage mining use.

Still, scarcity drives innovation — sometimes unethical ones. Some Ethereum mining factories, facing GPU shortages, have resorted to buying thousands of gaming laptops and extracting their internal graphics cards.

“Some factories bought over 10,000 gaming notebooks just to harvest GPUs,” Shang reveals. “For them, the resale value of the extracted GPU exceeds the laptop’s total cost.”

Yet chipmakers like Samsung and TSMC still treat crypto mining as a minor segment. As Wang Feng, founder of Mars Finance and Mars Pool, observes:

“Even at current valuations, all active miners combined produce only about 25–30K BTC annually — worth less than $18 billion. That’s under 10% of Samsung’s annual revenue.”

Still, with sustained bull markets, companies like NVIDIA are starting to take mining seriously — a sign that the industry may be maturing.

At the heart of it all is computing power, or hashrate. Miners constantly upgrade equipment to stay competitive — because in this game, more算力 (computational power) equals greater rewards.

⛏️ What Is Mining? A Game of Hashrate and Mining Pools

To outsiders, terms like blockchain, mining, and hashrate can seem abstract. In essence:

But solving these puzzles requires immense computational effort — far beyond what one machine can handle alone.

Enter mining pools. These networks combine the算力 of thousands of machines worldwide. Rewards are distributed proportionally based on each miner’s contributed hash rate using models like PPLNS or PPS+.

Centralization is growing:

Network算力 continues climbing:

Why such rapid growth? Ethereum’s GPU-friendly design lowers entry barriers — allowing individuals to mine with standard hardware.

📈 Miners vs Traders: Faith Over Speculation

According to Wang Feng, there's a philosophical divide between traders and miners:

“Miners believe in long-term value. They see mining as dollar-cost averaging — slowly accumulating assets with real infrastructure behind them.”

Data from Mars Pool shows over 90% repurchase rates among veteran miners — many upgrading multiple times within months.

Li Wen compares mining to stable income: “You don’t need to read K-lines or time the market. You calculate payback period and ROI — it’s straightforward.”

Peter adds: “Mining removes gambling instincts. While traders panic-sell during dips, miners keep earning daily rewards.”

But risks remain. During the 2018 bear market, many miners collapsed after BTC fell below operating costs. Some sold machines for scrap metal.

Those who held through the storm — especially when BTC dipped below $3,200 — saw returns multiply 18x by early 2021.

“True believers don’t care about short-term swings,” says Li Wen. “They mine through bull and bear cycles alike.”

🌐 DeFi’s Rise: A New Kind of Mining

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has introduced liquidity mining — where users stake crypto assets to earn yield.

Unlike算力-based mining:

Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi surpassed $55 billion by March 2021 — up from $14 billion in October 2020.

While DeFi attracts capital away from traditional mining short-term, it ultimately strengthens the ecosystem:

Wang Feng summarizes:

“Bitcoin is digital gold. Ethereum is the Android of crypto — open, extensible, foundational.”

As institutions embrace crypto and macroeconomic forces shape its trajectory, digital assets are no longer fringe experiments — they’re becoming integral to global finance.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Bitcoin mining still profitable in 2025?
A: Yes — despite rising hardware costs and network difficulty, high BTC prices have shortened payback periods to under 8 months for many setups.

Q: Why are graphics cards so hard to find?
A: Massive demand from gamers and Ethereum miners has created a global GPU shortage — worsened by supply chain constraints and scalping bots.

Q: Can I mine cryptocurrency using my laptop?
A: Technically yes — but modern mining requires powerful GPUs or ASICs. Laptop mining is inefficient and risks overheating or hardware damage.

Q: What happens when all Bitcoins are mined?
A: Miners will rely solely on transaction fees for income after the final BTC is issued (around 2140). However, network security is expected to remain robust due to rising transaction volume.

Q: Are mining pools centralizing too much power?
A: Centralization poses theoretical risks to decentralization principles. However, economic incentives discourage malicious behavior among major pools.

Q: How does DeFi affect traditional mining?
A: DeFi offers alternative yield opportunities with lower entry costs. While it draws some interest away from算力 mining short-term, it boosts overall crypto adoption — benefiting the entire ecosystem long-term.

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