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Nvidia Reports Huge Decline In GPU Sales for Cryptocurrency Mining

The vendor originally anticipated "cryptocurrency-specific product revenue" reaching $100 million during this year's second quarter, but it actually came in at a mere $18 million at a time when Bitcoin's price has sunk.

By Michael Kan
August 17, 2018
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition

Demand for graphics cards in the cryptocurrency mining world appears to be plummeting.

On Thursday, Nvidia reported a huge drop in GPU sales for cryptocurrency mining rigs during this year's second quarter, when Bitcoin's value sunk to a yearly low. Nvidia originally anticipated "cryptocurrency-specific product revenue" reaching $100 million during the quarter, but it actually came in at a mere $18 million, the company's CFO Colette Kress said in an earnings call.

That's massive fall from this year's first quarter when Nvidia raked in $289 million from "crypto-specific GPUs." Going forward, the company now expects a "negligible contribution" in graphics cards sales to the mining market and will no longer include them in future financial forecasts, executives said.

"In the beginning of the year, we thought and we projected that crypto would be a larger contribution through the rest of year," added Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. "But, at this time, we consider it to be immaterial for the second half."

According to Huang, the company began noticing an uptick on GPU sales in last year's third quarter, amid the rising price of Bitcoin, which you can mine using Nvidia graphics cards. By December, the virtual currency's price had reached close to $20,000 per coin, triggering a rush for GPU demand.

But since then, the whole cryptocurrency market has largely tanked. Bitcoin's price has fallen to about $6,300 a coin. Other virtual currencies that can be mined have also suffered price drops as well.

The good news? If you're a gamer, the prices for Nvidia graphics cards have been falling back to normal levels. During the cryptocurrency boom, the cost for many Nvidia GPUs briefly doubled, according to PCPartPicker, which has a website that tracks the current prices. If you want to save some cash, you can also consider buying used graphics cards.

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About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

I've been with PCMag since October 2017, covering a wide range of topics, including consumer electronics, cybersecurity, social media, networking, and gaming. Prior to working at PCMag, I was a foreign correspondent in Beijing for over five years, covering the tech scene in Asia.

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