Video card prices plunging in China after crypto crackdown

Tom's Hardware reports street prices of video cards have dropped significantly over the past week, at least in China. The price action is the result of a crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. Recently, Chinese authorities banned mining farms in Sichuan, following earlier shutdowns in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

These three regions were the three most popular Chinese provinces for cryptocurrency mining, due to very low electricity prices. Mining is also forbidden in Qinghai and Yunnan. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) claims cryptocurrencies disrupt normal economic and financial order, and infringe on the property safety of people. The central bank also points to the risks of illegal and criminal activities, including illegal asset transfers and money laundering.

The Chinese government already banned cryptocurrency mining in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, so Sichuan was the last province to join the list. Mining farms obviously posed a huge threat to China's strong aspirations to achieve peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Many miners thought Sichuan would be exempt from the ban since the province uses hydropower instead of coal. However, the province didn't receive any special treatment, either. In fact, the government has instructed electricity providers to evaluate their biggest clients' power consumption to report any abnormalities by June 25. -- Tom's Hardware

The result is a steep drop in video card prices. The Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 OC Edition for example now trades for $835, down 45 percent versus pricingin May. Similarly, the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio fell 24 percent and the Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ultra OC saw a 33 percent.

Price drops in Europe were also observed last week. Prices are still elevated, but things seem to be moving in the right direction.