Confusion and Greed Clouds the Antminer KA3 Launch

What is the Bitmain Antminer KA3?

Over the past few years, the cryptocurrency industry has been evolving at breakneck pace, meeting new highs of computational power matched with increasing network saturation. Projects seemingly emerge weekly, and one project in particular, Kadena– a New York City based brainchild of two former blockchain division employees of JP Morgan and the SEC– is now set to revolutionize the future of proof-of-work and has been referred to as the next cryptocurrency to be benchmarked against Bitcoin and fill the hashrate void left by Ethereum, which has now successfully transitioned to proof-of-stake rendering the coin unmineable.

The leading manufacturer of POW ASICs, Bitmain, had organized a launch event for the ANTMINER KA3 in late September, 2022. Previously it was only available through colocation contracts with HashFrog, but that offer was quickly superseded by an announcement they would release units to the general public in very limited quantities at a paltry $5,300 USD. Antpool and HashFrog co-hosted a keynote event which the growing confidence in the Kadena ecosystem and future prospects for its mining profitability. The race to acquire these machines was on.

The ANTMINER KA3’s specifications were shared, offering a remarkable 166T hash rate performance, marking a significant upgrade over the output available from the nearest comparable. Goldshell’s top-tier KD MAX only offers 40.2T, and is priced substantially higher. The new ASIC release impressively brings efficiency to a new industry standard then of 19 J/T as far as the Blake2S algorithm is concerned.

The KA3 incorporates the design from BITMAIN’s somewhat aging 19 Series flagship range that offers advanced air-cooling heat dissipation and software management. It utilizes the groundbreaking 5nm chips used currently in the S19 Hydro and S19 XP lineup, a major step up versus the Goldshell model offering.

Estimated Mining Revenue of the ANTMINER KA3 as of publishing.

Why the rapid price fluctuation?

Pre-orders for the KA3 from resellers were strategically priced starting around $6,300 USD when Bitmain made their announcement of $5,300 for public sale. Taking into account $67.56 of profit per day it would mean that the return on investment would only take 148 days, which puts it at the top of the scale. In a nutshell, the KA3 is currently the most profitable ASIC miner on the market by a wide margin.

It has come to our attention, but not as a surprise,  from customers who have approached us who had pre-ordered the KA3 from resellers who did NOT secure any units in advance from Bitmain, miscalculated the anticipation of the KA3 production quantity and demand, and ultimately had no intention to honor their customer’s orders. By not securing stock from Bitmain using their own funds, but the funds of others, many executed immediate refunds to their customers to sell pre-orders at double the price to the next highest bidder, and values of the model have been climbing since October 1st. Goldshell did not flinch on this manipulation either– the prices of their KDA miners have not decreased, and in fact, increased during this time slightly.

Prices doubled the day the online Bitmain.com sale of the KA3 sold out within 40 seconds on 10am, October 1st 2022. Unscrupulous resellers also did not plan for any abrupt increases in Kadena yet to be realized, which will cause resellers to return and cancel pre-orders even at the doubled and tripled values, prompting them again to release units at a higher price to a different customer, repeating the cycle of greed. Similar “interest-free loan” schemes took place during the launch of the Antminer L7 and with the Antminer E9 to a certain degree, with the latter not being confirmed by Bitmain yet pre-orders were being collected at least 1 year in advance from unsuspecting customers.

We want to make it clear Vipera does not support this dishonest and unethical conduct on the part of our competitors. Our price is indicative of the quantity and value we have secured in advance with Bitmain long before this price manipulation occurred and ruse of an extremely limited, unattainable online-only sale by Bitmain was conducted– perhaps to send a message to rival manufacturers such as Goldshell and IBeLink. We are dedicated to locking in your order at FAIR market value based on demand and comparison with top-tier Goldshell KDA ASICs—which have not lost value as a result of these confusing KA3 preorder activities. For increased security and peace of mind, legal purchase agreements are to be signed stating all terms, and we accept credit card payments. In addition, we provide a 1-year extended warranty on your KA3, instead of just 6 months. Lastly, we absorb all import duties so you don’t have to, instead of being on the hook for 27.3% of the total if purchased elsewhere (including Bitmain) on full declared value.

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