1. Introduction of Alephium ASIC in April 2024
Let’s explore how to make money through mining with Alephium ASIC. From 2021 to 2023, the Ethereum GPU mining boom brought significant profits to many people. After Ethereum transitioned from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), many existing GPU miners quickly sold their GPUs and gave up mining.
Since then, various PoW-based mining coins, aiming to be the next Ethereum, have started emerging. Among them, a new ASIC developer, ICERIVER, introduced the KS0, a Kaspa-specific ASIC miner with a 100GH hashrate.
Most people didn’t believe in the extremely low-power consumption and impressive mining performance of ICERIVER’s ASIC, and many thought it was a scam since it was an unknown company, unlike established ASIC manufacturers like Bitmain.
However, those brave enough to be the first to purchase ICERIVER’s Kaspa miner recovered their initial investment within just two months, thanks to the rise in Kaspa prices and high mining yields, resulting in substantial profits.
Similar to Kaspa’s ICERIVER, Goldshell launched the first Alephium-specific ASIC in April 2024, with an actual selling price exceeding $14,000 per unit.
2. Profit Analysis for Early Alephium ASIC Buyers
In April 2024, when Goldshell first released the Alephium ASIC, ALBOX 1, the initial sale price was set at $14,000 per unit.
Alephium showed a similar price increase and hashrate growth to Kaspa, and investors who had already experienced high returns from ICERIVER’s ASICs took the high-risk/high-return approach and purchased Alephium ASICs at a high price.
Alephium’s market cap was moderate, neither too small nor too large, suggesting high growth potential. Coinciding with the release of the ASIC, Alephium’s price reached $3.4. If we apply the mining volume at that high price to the ALBOX 1 ASIC mining yield in April 2024, the return on investment (ROI) for the $14,000 ASIC was less than three months. In other words, the ASIC purchase price of 20 million KRW could be recovered within three months, offering a high expected return.
3. Losses Due to the Continuous Decline of Alephium After Goldshell’s ASIC Release
Goldshell launched the ALBOX 1, an Alephium-specific ASIC with a 360GH hashrate using the BLAKE3 algorithm, in April 2024, at a price of $14,000 per unit. Following the release, the price of Alephium dropped to $1 per unit due to early investors recovering their principal and selling off, along with profit-taking from existing investors.
Many expected that, like Kaspa’s ICERIVER ASICs, more powerful ASICs would soon be released, leading to a drop in the ALBOX 1’s price to $10,000 by the end of April 2024.
Due to the decrease in mining volume caused by the increase in hashrate and the declining Alephium price, the ROI for ALBOX 1 continued to increase, and sales of ALBOX 1 plummeted. Goldshell continued to lower the price of ALBOX 1, and by mid-June, the selling price had fallen to $5,500 per unit.
As of June 2024, ALBOX 1’s average daily mining volume was around 15 Alephium, which translates to about 450 Alephium per month. At the then-current price, this amounted to a monthly profit of $500, resulting in a one-year ROI for the ASIC.
For those who purchased ALBOX 1 at prices above $10,000, it is estimated that they incurred losses exceeding $5,000 over three months, with the remaining $5,000 unlikely to be recovered.
4. Announcement of High-Performance Alephium ASICs Sooner Than Expected
ICERIVER initially sold its 100GH hashrate ASIC for about three months, then gradually introduced 1TH KS1, 2TH KS2, and ASICs with over 5TH hashrate, with a relatively long time gap between product releases.
As a result, Kaspa ASIC miners were sold at relatively stable prices, and the overall network hashrate of Kaspa increased gradually. Most investors who purchased ASICs in 2023 were able to cover the cost of their ASICs within a year.
However, Goldshell released the ALBOX 2, with double the mining performance of the ALBOX 1 (720GH hashrate), less than two months after the launch of the initial 360GH ALBOX 1 model.
Since the price of ALBOX 2 was set similarly to that of ALBOX 1, investors who purchased ALBOX 1 faced significant losses and were unlikely to make additional purchases.
5. Major Mining Companies Set to Release Alephium-Specific Miners
Goldshell rushed to sell ALBOX 2, understanding that major players like Bitmain and ICERIVER were about to release high-performance Alephium-specific miners.
Notably, Bitmain, a major company, announced that it would release an Alephium miner with an insane 15.4TH performance in September 2024, priced at around $33,000. Bitmain’s new Alephium miner boasts mining performance approximately 44 times that of Goldshell’s ALBOX.
Unlike Kaspa, where miners with gradually increasing performance were released, Bitmain decided to launch a monster 15.4TH miner directly into the market.
This development means that low-performance ASIC miners from Goldshell are unlikely to sell well from this point onward, and existing miners will face significant losses.
The only hope is to mine intensively until September when Bitmain’s monster miner hits the market, hoping for a price increase due to the sharp rise in hashrate resulting from the release.
The time remaining is no more than three months, or as little as two months.
6. Applying the High-Risk/High-Return Formula to ASIC Mining Investments
Cryptocurrency investments are highly volatile, and this high volatility applies equally to purchasing ASIC miners.
Investors considering purchasing ASIC miners may find it more advantageous to buy coins directly rather than the miner itself. However, if Alephium’s price continues to rise and covers the cost of the ASIC miner, it could lead to a successful investment.
The most significant advantage of buying mining equipment is that you can mechanically mine a fixed amount of cryptocurrency daily without any psychological fluctuations. If you carefully plan your investment, balancing between cryptocurrency spot investments and ASIC miner purchases, you could realize significant profits within 2-3 years.
I wish all the investors reading this great success in your endeavors! As of July 22, 2024, Alephium is priced at $2.11. While the future remains uncertain, I plan to write another article on Alephium in the future.
