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.
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.
