Ethereum miners have spent $15 billion in GPUs over the past one and a half years, with that amount being higher when factoring in other parts like CPUs, PSUs, and chassis.
The report originally comes from analysts from Bitpro Consulting, which Bloomberg reported on and our friends over at Tom’s Hardware spotted. It seems that Ethereum miners might have depleted about 10% of the total GPU supply during the cryptocurrency bubble of the last two years.
This explosion in mining and consequent GPU hoarding coincided with gamer demand, which helped fuel the steep rise in prices. On average a GPU cost $1,056 per unit in 2021, compared to it being a third of that price in 2019. GPU sales totalled around $51.8 billion for all of 2021, according to data from JPR.
And while Ethereum mining had been profitable at one point, hitting its highs around mid-2021, its value has dropped by 70% this year which bodes poorly for those who got in on the mining late.
Analysis: The effects of Ethereum mining and beyond
Considering that even in its highs, Ethereum was becoming far slower and more expensive thanks to it nearly hitting its transaction cap on a daily basis.
But now with its value tanking, many cryptoinvestors have found themselves unable to recoup the losses from spending so much money on GPUs and other parts. One such story, as outlined in the Bloomberg article, has one man who invested $30,000 in cryptomining hardware in mid-2021 but has only made about $5,000 so far through crypto.
That’s not even considering the environmental impact of all this mining, as the level of carbon emissions has always been a major problem with cryptocurrencies. And it could be argued that between the waste of the GPUs purchased for mining coupled with the environmental damage, the value of Ethereum alone declining so steeply has made this all for nothing.