It’s no longer a secret that cryptocurrency mining has become increasingly popular among people these days who look to make money in a short span of time. However, for mining, you require a lot of horsepowers as well, which is why this year the new and powerful GPUs are in heavy demand.
This is one of the biggest reasons why the availability of both RTX 30-series and RX 6000 series GPUs are so weak as well as the prices are inflated. In the meantime, miners have now turned their attention in Iran, where the electricity is provided at cheap rates.
via @I_Leak_VN via @I_Leak_VN
According to El Chapuzas Informatico, an investigation by Iranian authorities has revealed that the recent power outages in Iran are due to the growing popularity of mining farms in the country. Interestingly, Chinese companies are shifting their mining operations to Iran because the electricity costs in Iran is 4 times lower than in mainland China.
It is suspected that Iran now houses 14 large mining farms which consume around 300 megawatts of power, almost comparable to the power consumption of a city with about 100K inhabitants. So, while Iran has become a hotspot for miners, it is suspected that the hardware sold to them, mainly GPUs are being directly sold to miners.
via @I_Leak_VN via @I_Leak_VN
As Videocardz points out, these unfair means of sale is not a concern for the manufacturer or even board partners, as long as these GPUs get sold. This is the sole cause of why new GPUs are nowhere to be found, it will indeed take quite some time to recover the worse situation.