Photo/Shetuwang

May 14 (NBD) -- Bitcoin shot up to over 8,000 U.S. dollars in the morning of May 14, a record high since July 2018, according to data from Feixiaohao, one of the big data platforms for the digital currency industry. 

National Business Daily noticed the cryptocurrency's long winning streak since April this year has given a great impetus to the mining machine industry.

A dealer who declined to be named revealed to news outlet Jiemian that a used mining machine Shenma M3 originally available at 200 yuan (29.3 U.S. dollars) is currently sold at 450 yuan, and an Antminer T9 now costs around 600-700 yuan. 

Blockchain data firm TokenInsight once said it would take 200-350 days to recover investment costs of most types of used crypto mining equipment in early April, when the price of Bitcoin was around 4,000 U.S. dollars, and now the payback period has been shortened to less than 200 days thanks to the strong growth of Bitcoin prices. 

"When the payback period is below 200 days, more miners would think it as an opportunity," said Michael Zhong, a mining analyst at TokenInsight. "But when it further drives up their buying demand for secondhand models and leads to a price jump of mining rigs, payback period will be brought back above 200 days again."

According to the incomplete statistics of a blockchain-centric news outlet, prices of used versions of some out-of-stock models are roughly the same as or even higher than those of new ones. 

For example, the secondhand version of the Antminer T17 from Bitmain with an official price of 9,400 yuan is sold at 13,860 yuan. The secondhand price of the Panda Miner ranges from 2,500 yuan to 26,900 yuan, with the high end far above the official price of 5,000-5,600 yuan. 

But for early models like the Shenma M3 and Avalon A7, secondhand prices are much more attractive than original price tags. 

In addition to the surge of Bitcoin prices, the lower electric charge in the forthcoming wet season and new capital from newcomers help prop up prices of mining machines. 

According to Chris Zhu, co-founder of Poolin, a China-based crypto mining pool, there's a large amount new capital weighing in this year, who didn't experience mining cryptocurrencies in a water season in a bearish market. Zhu, however, warned risks related to cryptocurrency mining, saying there is no guarantee of profits. 

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn