Bitmain announced on Tuesday that buyers of its AntMiner S17+ and T17+ mining equipment with delivery dates between mid-February and the end of April would receive coupons worth from $17 to $272 per unit. Bitmain’s decision reflects the impact of last month’s crash in bitcoin prices and the expected mining revenue drop due to bitcoin halving event scheduled to take place next month.
Bitmain to compensate buyers with coupons.
According to the announcement, buyers that received the AntMiner S17+ pre-orders in late March, the mining machine maker company, will compensate them with coupons worth around $240 per unit. Those who will receive or have received their AntMiner S17+ throughout this month, the partial refund for them will be around $270. The coupons can only be used when purchasing additional goods at Bitmain. These coupons refunds also signal more tough market conditions for the sales of mining equipment at the moment as Bitmain’s revenues are likely to suffer because of this.
Miner manufacturer cut prices after March 12 crash.
The crash in the price of the leading cryptocurrency last month prompted miner manufacturers to sell inventories at a discount, in some cases as steep as 20 percent, in the recent weeks. Bitcoin halving that is scheduled to take place next month will reduce the network’s mining reward by half, causing most miners to be less profitable if BTC price doesn’t increase significantly by then. The prices of most specialized bitcoin computers, known as ASICs, had already been dropping since the fourth quarter of last year, as the manufacturers adjusted their strategies, keeping in mind bitcoin’s price swing.
This is the first time in bitcoin’s history that the cryptocurrency is heading into halvening with the Relative Strenght Index being at historically low levels. The short-term prediction for bitcoin is still quite bearish as the price of the leading cryptocurrency is expected to fall in the coming weeks.
