China Supreme Court Sides With Mining Operator in Battle Over 485,000 GPUs
Genesis Mining will get its 485,681 AMD RX 470 8GB graphics cards back.
Anyone looking for a five-year-old GPU might be in luck soon. The Block reported that China’s Supreme Court has ordered the return of 485,681 AMD Radeon RX 470 8GB graphics cards to Genesis Mining, which calls itself the "largest cloud Bitcoin mining company," following a legal dispute with its former hosting provider.
Genesis Mining filed its lawsuit in 2019 after the hosting provider, Chuangshiji Technology Limited, allegedly refused to return the graphics cards, as well as 60,580 AntMiner S9 mining rigs, after the companies had a payment-related spat in 2018.
Now the conflict has finally been resolved… just in time for Genesis Mining to figure out what it’s going to do with nearly half a million graphics cards after China’s decision to shut down mining operations throughout many of its provinces.
The Block said that Genesis Mining CEO Marco Streng “declined to specify the current status of the equipment and whether the hardware is in transit to Genesis Mining’s facilities.” It could mine in another country; it could also sell the GPUs.
Both options could prove lucrative. The Block estimated that Genesis Mining could see gross profits of nearly $1 million per day if the rigs hit their potential 14 TH/s hashrate on the Ethash algorithm to mine Ethereum at its current price.
The graphics cards might also fetch a decent price on the secondary market despite their age. It’s nearly impossible to find a modern GPU, let alone one of the best graphics cards, in stock, especially at MSRP, which has forced manufacturers and enthusiasts alike to settle for older models.
A quick eBay search revealed one pre-owned MSI RX 470 8GB with a leading bid of $315. Another pre-owned unit was listed at $500. Even the lower of those two figures would net Genesis Mining nearly $153 million if it were to sell its entire inventory.
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It might not be wise to buy one of those graphics cards. But at this point many people are willing to settle for pretty much anything, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Genesis Mining decided to flood the market with these RX 470s.
Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.
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InvalidError If 500k RX470s were put on the market, I doubt the $300 price point would hold. If they decide to sell their old GPUs, it will probably be in lots of 100-1000 as-is at $150 or so a pop, let someone else worry about testing, re-conditioning and re-selling those one by one.Reply -
hannibal Yeah… USA did get Big shipment of 17000 new gpus! Wohoo!Reply
And one mining farm has allmost 500000 gpus…
I feel myself so small in this gpu battle… -
InvalidError Reply
Those 500k cards were seized two years ago though, who knows how many months the miner spent getting all of those RX470s.hannibal said:And one mining farm has allmost 500000 gpus…
It does put in perspective the magnitude of mining installations in need of GPU upgrades whenever something with a significant MH/W advantage comes out -
TheOtherOne Steam reports nVidia GPUs outnumber AMD by a large margin, even when combining all the AMD models vs just one of nVidia's.Reply
Genesis Mining: We exists! :vip: -
zodiacfml too crazy. is the number accurate? having 1000 GPUs can be considered a mining companyReply -
velocityg4 ReplyInvalidError said:If 500k RX470s were put on the market, I doubt the $300 price point would hold. If they decide to sell their old GPUs, it will probably be in lots of 100-1000 as-is at $150 or so a pop, let someone else worry about testing, re-conditioning and re-selling those one by one.
The market would definitely bottom out for a while. It wouldn't just cause a drop in that model. Models all around it would drop.
I doubt any seller would be reconditioning though. They'd be buying them by the pallet at discount. Then just refunding final buyers, any that don't work. Maybe testing if they POST before shipping.
Anyways, I doubt they'll make it to market. If that company doesn't want to deal with it. I'm sure other large scale mining operations are already contacting them and making big offers on the entire lot. -
NightLight Am I alone in never ever buying a used graphics card? Or CPU, or mobo for that matter... Gotta have that warranty man!Reply -
GoofyOne They'll probably just melt them all down and extract copper, gold ... should be at least a couple ounces.Reply