Cryptocurrency slowdown easing mid-range GPU pricing?

The cryptocurrency market is very fluid and sees a lot more volatility than the currencies that are issued by first-world central banks. Last month, the pricing of a Bitcoin saw the $5,000 level for the very first time, but after that the value of a Bitcoin fell sharply towards $3,000. Prices of Bitcoins as well as the popular GPU-mined Ethereum coins are still off the highs but are no longer plunging.

How this will impact GPU pricing is anyone's guess, but over the weekend, The Tech Report had some good news for gamers as the site noticed that the pricing of mid-range video cards seems to be easing again:

The slight easing of tensions may be extending to AMD's higher-end cards, too. Although Newegg still isn't selling standalone Radeon RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64 cards yet, the Radeon Black Pack versions of both cards are not far off their official prices. One can actually pick up an MSI RX Vega 56 Black Pack for the suggested $499.99 right now, and the RX Vega 64 Black Pack from Sapphire is $619.99 (or $20 over AMD's suggested price for the combo). Whether those are good values in light of the fact that you can still pick up a GTX 1080 for $500 to $550 is debatable, but they are at least not pants-on-head stupid.

Whether that situation will continue is hard to predict, a big surge in the pricing of cryptocurrencies could reverse the recent easing. At the moment, Ethereum mining profitability also took a big hit due to increases in block difficulty but that situation is expected to be resolved soon with the rollout of Ethereum's Byzantium update.