Latest news about Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. Your daily crypto news habit.
Russia has been suffering from a shortage of graphics cards that can be used to mine cryptocurrencies, causing their prices to almost double. However, it was not ordinary households that purchased most of these cards. State-owned Sberbank has come forward, admitted to buying them, and apologized for causing the shortage.
Also read:Â Bitcoin-Based Ethereum Rival RSK Set to Launch Next Month
Sberbank Apologized for Buying Up Graphics Cards
Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia and third largest in Europe, is majority-owned by the Russian government. According to senior vice president, Alexander Vedyakhin, the bankâs research lab was behind the dry spell. Ria Novosti reported on Saturday:
The reason for the deficit in the video card market was Sberbank, buying up video cards for its laboratory of artificial intelligence.
âWe invest very much in technology, and we should, incidentally, apologize for that shortage in the video card market, which occurred recently, because we bought them for the laboratory of artificial intelligence,â Vedyakhin said at the Sberbank international conference on data analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence. However, he indicated that soon the shortage will be over âbecause we [have] satisfied our need.â
Is Sberbank Mining Cryptocurrency?
While Sberbank has said that it is ânot yet readyâ to use cryptocurrency, the bank admitted to studying it in detail, according to Stanislav Kuznetsov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank.
âSberbank does not intend to use cryptocurrency in business yet, but is studying them to protect itself from scammers,â Tass reported and quoted Kuznetsov saying last month at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi:
We are not afraid of cryptocurrencies, but in order to defend ourselves, we must understand in detail how scammers operate, we must study each stepâŠToday we are deeply studying this topic, but, unfortunately, there are no solutions yet, how to proceed further, and we are not yet ready to use the cryptocurrency.
Shortage of Graphics Cards in Russia
The Chinese online trading platform Aliexpress, an Ebay-like subsidiary of Alibaba, reported in June that there was a surge in demand for video cards in Russia for cryptocurrency mining. âAliexpress associated a surge of interest in video cards with the desire to use them to generate cryptocurrency,â the publication emphasized, adding that:
The trading platform reported that its users began to look more actively for specific models of video cards that are most suitable for creating crypto-farms (GeForce GTX1060, GTX1070 and Radeon RX480), and the number of bitcoin miner requests increased 150% in a month.
Prior to Sberbankâs confession, RT reported that âthe recent surge in the value of bitcoin has caused a jump in demand for video cards, which are used in cryptocurrency mining.â In addition, âpeople buy up to 600 video cards at once,â the publication detailed, noting that this has caused âa nearly 80 percent price surge since the spring.â
According to Vedomosti, the spike in demand has caused the price of graphics cards to rise âby an average of twice: for example, a device that cost in spring 16,000-18,000 rubles now costs more than 30,000.â The news outlet added that one store promised that the cards can be ordered within a week while another said it would take 10 days.
Do you think Sberbank is mining cryptocurrencies? What do you think of them buying up most graphics cards in Russia? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Sberbank.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
The post Sberbank Apologizes for Buying Nearly All Graphics Cards on the Russian Market appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.