• Burmese
Friday, May 16, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
20 °c
Ashburn
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

Computer Shops Embrace Lucrative Business: Outfitting Cryptocurrency Miners

Reuters by Reuters
February 21, 2018
in Asia
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
A cryptocurrency mining computer equipped with high-end graphic cards is seen on display at a computer mall in Hong Kong, China, on Jan. 29. / Reuters

A cryptocurrency mining computer equipped with high-end graphic cards is seen on display at a computer mall in Hong Kong, China, on Jan. 29. / Reuters

3.8k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE — Some of the biggest electronics bazaars in Asia are being flooded with customers looking for the latest piece of technology: cryptocurrency mining rigs.

Scores of miners from around the world are travelling to places like Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po and Singapore’s Sim Lim Square to buy the rigs, which the shops’ hardware geeks expertly build behind counters in their cramped boutiques.

Some miners only buy components: a motherboard, graphic processing units, fans, power adapters, a display card and a memory card. But even if the vendors assemble them on the spot for a small fee, the finished product is usually still a relative bargain.

RelatedPosts

JFM: 12 ASEAN Billionaires Fueling Myanmar Junta Terror Campaign

JFM: 12 ASEAN Billionaires Fueling Myanmar Junta Terror Campaign

May 13, 2025
1.6k
Junta No. 2 Admits Draft Extortion Rampant; Dictator Pitches Shoes to Stomp Sanctions; and More

Junta No. 2 Admits Draft Extortion Rampant; Dictator Pitches Shoes to Stomp Sanctions; and More

March 22, 2025
3.7k
UN Urged to Investigate Myanmar Special Envoy for Conflicts of Interest

UN Urged to Investigate Myanmar Special Envoy for Conflicts of Interest

March 10, 2025
5.6k

“It’s 30-50 percent cheaper to buy equipment related to cryptomining in Hong Kong than in Europe,” Russian bitcoin miner Dima Popov said. Hong Kong, for instance, has no sales tax and is closer to component suppliers.

Popov buys display cards, motherboards and power supplies in Hong Kong and mines cryptocurrencies in Russia, where electricity is cheaper and the climate is more suitable.

The demand for the rigs has added a new dimension to Asia’s tech shopping hubs whose once bustling business fizzled out in recent years hit by waning demand for personal computers. Storefronts that once catered mostly to locals, selling phones and other consumer gear, are now greeting foreign visitors searching for hardware that might make them rich.

Digital Mining

The rigs are often stacked in warehouses as large as airplane hangars and are monitored constantly.

Each unit contains energy-intensive processors that solve complex mathematical computations. When they do so, they are awarded the right to validate a blockchain transaction, earning them a “mining” fee.

One cryptocurrency expert said anecdotal evidence suggests on average miners would get their money back in about three months. But those with small, home-based operations might have to wait much longer for a payoff.

In Hong Kong, shopkeepers say most buyers come from Russia, but they have had clients from western Europe, Africa and South Korea. Singapore sees visitors from neighboring countries with cheaper operation costs.

Their mining machines’ parts are mostly manufactured in China using chips from Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia, which are looking for export customers amid fears that Beijing will crack down on cryptocurrency miners.

“We’ve been selling more these few months and we often run out of stock” as miners move elsewhere and components flood out of China, said Grant Mak of C. Base Computer.

Jerry Wu, shop manager of Wisetek Digital Technology Co Ltd, says selling cryptocurrency mining equipment is 50 percent more profitable than selling computer parts and brings him HK$50,000 to HK$60,000 ($6,400 to $7,673) a month in profits.

“The revenue is large,” Wu said.

Chipmakers Capitalize

As miners hunt for deals on gear, chipmakers see opportunity. Rigs can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands or more — and processing chips are the priciest component.

Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest microchip producer, said “explosive” demand for the graphics processors used in mining cryptocurrencies is driving fresh growth.

“A share of clients from the virtual currency industry is expected to grow dramatically this year in our foundry customer base,” Lee Sang-hyun, vice president of Samsung’s foundry business, said during a conference call.

Taiwan’s Advanced Semiconductor Engineering predicted an upswing in demand this year for chips used for mining rigs.

And Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world’s No.1 foundry by revenue and volume, has embraced cryptocurrency mining as a business venture.

But they know how fast that could change.

“The urge to mine cryptocurrency is very strong. The incentive, of course, depends on the price of cryptocurrency. And the price of cryptocurrency is very volatile. But the demand right now or for the last year has been very strong, and we expect it to continue to be strong,” TSMC’s chairman, Morris Chang, said on an earnings call last month.

‘They Trust Singapore’

Singapore’s smaller version of Sham Shui Po, the electronics shopping center at Sim Lim Square, is also seeing increased demand for mining equipment.

Anuj Agarwal, a 39-year-old consultant for his brother’s shop, Bizgram, said he has dealt with buyers from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Russia.

“Foreigners come to Singapore as there is immediate supply of mining rigs here, and they trust Singapore as a country,” he said, adding that some were as young as 16 and came with their parents.

Nearby at Video-Pro, Liu Xiao Yu said he could not keep up with the demand.

“There was a customer who asked for a rig with 500 GPU cards, which amounted to over S$350,000 ($262,700),” Liu said. “There was another who came by last week asking for 1,000 GPU cards, but I am afraid to accept the offer as supplies are low now.”

One rig with GPUs usually has six to 12 such cards.

Vendors say the 60 percent drop from an all-time high of close to $20,000 did not deter their regular customers, who tend to own large mining operations.

“Individual players may be freaked out, but the big players do not really mind. Big players are our major customers,” said Roy Chan, shop manager of BNW Technology in Hong Kong.

In Singapore, some sellers saw a 40 percent drop in revenue as Bitcoin prices tanked. But the shops are unfazed.

“Once the value of Bitcoin increases again, we will receive multiple calls and emails from customers all over the world,” Agarwal from Bizgram said.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: Business
Reuters

Reuters

...

Similar Picks:

Post-Coup Myanmar is a Family Business: Min Aung Hlaing & Co
Burma

Post-Coup Myanmar is a Family Business: Min Aung Hlaing & Co

by David Aung
February 8, 2024
17.8k

Min Aung Hlaing is an opportunistic businessman in military uniform and his children are more mercenary than the offspring of...

Read moreDetails
KIA Seizes Myanmar Junta’s Last Remaining China Trade Route in Kachin State
War Against the Junta

KIA Seizes Myanmar Junta’s Last Remaining China Trade Route in Kachin State

by The Irrawaddy
June 14, 2024
17.1k

The military regime has also lost control of all border trade in neighboring northern Shan State.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Reportedly Set to Prosecute High-Profile Businessmen for Corruption
Junta Cronies

Myanmar Junta Reportedly Set to Prosecute High-Profile Businessmen for Corruption

by The Irrawaddy
October 18, 2023
15.9k

Regime cronies Thein Win Zaw and Mu Mu Shein are set to follow former lieutenant general Moe Myint Tun as...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta’s ‘Brainless’ Response to Soaring Gold Prices Leaves Market in Disarray
Analysis

Myanmar Junta’s ‘Brainless’ Response to Soaring Gold Prices Leaves Market in Disarray

by Hein Htoo Zan
June 4, 2024
14.8k

Arrests, corruption, false receipts—the crisis in the gold and currency markets bears all the hallmarks of the junta’s inability to...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar’s Multibillion-Dollar Jade Trade ‘Crashing’ as China Clamps Down  
Business

Myanmar’s Multibillion-Dollar Jade Trade ‘Crashing’ as China Clamps Down  

by The Irrawaddy
June 5, 2024
14.3k

Crackdown on border scams and tax fraud is taking heavy toll on gems trade, say merchants.

Read moreDetails
Scam Operations Flourish in Myanmar’s Biggest City
Investigation

Scam Operations Flourish in Myanmar’s Biggest City

by The Irrawaddy
March 7, 2024
10.1k

Under the noses of junta officials, online scam syndicates freely operate in Yangon as government-registered companies, an investigation by The...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
U Parmaukkha appears at the Kamayut Township Court in Yangon on Wednesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

Nationalist Monk Gets 3-Month Jail Term for Incitement

An ethnic Shan woman, wearing the colours of the Shan National flag on her face, attends the 69th Shan State National Day celebration at Loi Tai Leng on the Thai-Myanmar border in February, 2016. / Reuters

Still No Date for Release of Census Findings on Ethnic Populations

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Breaking the 60-Year Political Cycle in Myanmar

Breaking the 60-Year Political Cycle in Myanmar

4 days ago
1.1k
How Myanmar Junta Uses Air Force to Fight Its Corner

How Myanmar Junta Uses Air Force to Fight Its Corner

3 days ago
1.1k

Most Read

  • Ousted Myanmar Envoy to UK Charged With Trespass in London Residence Row

    Ousted Myanmar Envoy to UK Charged With Trespass in London Residence Row

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three Japanese Firms Ditch Myanmar Port Project

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Leader Scores Diplomatic Win With Xi Meeting in Moscow

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Disaster Diplomacy in Myanmar: A Convenient Narrative for the Int’l Community

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Children Torn in Two’: Witness Describes Myanmar Junta’s School Massacre

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.