In Brief:
- Mining equipment demand dropped in June amid price-fall
- The sales have tripled in September from last month as price plunges above $50,000.
Southeast Asian country Vietnam saw a high demand for crypto mining rigs to mine bitcoin, Ethereum, etc., as bitcoin prices rose above $51,000.
According to the report by Vnexpress, Quang Thuan, owner of a chain of shops in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), said: “sales have tripled in early September from last month.”
A few months ago, the mining rig market decreased because the prices of cryptocurrencies went down. However, in the second half of August, bitcoin moved back up $50,000.
Le Hung, administrator of a cryptocurrency mining group with nearly 80,000 members, said the mining market has heated up due to 2 factors.
“First, Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies have simultaneously seen price hikes, and miners have started to make profits. Second, the pandemic (Covid-19) has prolonged, reducing investment options, and so more people have opted for coin mining.”
Ngoc Van of the southern province of Dong Nai has established an Ethereum mine. He said: “It cost me nearly VND3 billion($130,400) to set up this mine. All rigs are new and stable. I hope I can recoup the investment in six months.”
The best-sellers are equipment assembled with graphics processing units produced by AMD and Nvidia. Their prices vary between 80 to 100 million Vietnamese dong (VND) now. That’s almost VND 5 Million higher than in mid-August.
Data from Statista in February showed Vietnam had the second-highest rate in terms of cryptocurrency use among 74 surveyed economies. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not recognized as legal means of payment in Vietnam.
The State Bank of Vietnam has warned that owning, trading and using cryptocurrencies are risky and not protected by law. However, in July, the Vietnam PM asked the State Bank to study and carry out pilot cryptocurrency implementation from 2021 to 2023.
