ASIC BTC miners (an abbreviation of the English application-specific integrated circuit, "integrated circuit for a specific application") — machines optimized exclusively for bitcoin mining are currently being sold at minimum prices not seen since 2020 and 2021, which is seen as another sign of the deepening of the bear market of cryptocurrencies

According to the latest Hashrate Index data, the most efficient ASIC miners, which generate at least one terahash per 38 joules of energy, have faced an 86.82% drop in prices since May. On August 7, 2021, the peak of $119.25 per terahash dropped to $15.71 as of December 25.

This category includes Bitmain Antminer S19 and Whatsminer M30s miners from MicroBTC.

The same applies to mid-range cars: prices are currently averaging $10.23 after falling 89.36% from the peak price of $96.24 in May 2021.

However, the least efficient machines, which require more than 68 Joules per TH, now cost $4.72, which is 91% less than their peak price of $52.85. The last time the price was close to this was around November 5, 2020.

The price drop has largely been attributed to large mining companies that have struggled to remain profitable in a bear market, with many of them either filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, taking on debt, or selling their crypto assets and equipment to stay afloat.

Among the firms that have done this are Core Scientific, Marathon Digital, Riot Blockchain, Bitfarms and Argo Blockchain.

But the sharp drop in prices was met by some interested buyers. Among them are many Russian mining enterprises, such as BitRiver, which can benefit from relatively low electricity costs, with some modern equipment capable of mining one bitcoin (BTC) at a price of about $0.07 per kilowatt hour in an energy-rich environment. nation.

Although it is difficult to predict in which price direction ASIC miners will move in the near future, Niko Smid from Digital Mining Solutions indicated in a tweet dated December 21 that prices for ASIC miners reached the bottom during the last BTC halving cycle in May-April 2020 and soon after that aggressively moved up - what can play a role in the next bitcoin halving cycle, which is expected to take place on April 20, 2024.