Police Catch £2.4 Million Shipment Of Cryptocurrency Mining Graphics Cards

A shipment of almost 6000 graphics cards have been seized at Huanggang Port on the border between Hong Kong and China.

If you ever wondered why you've not been able to get your hands on the fabled PS5, the answer is in the chips. Since the rise in popularity of blockchains for things such as cryptocurrency and NFTs there has been an increasing thirst for graphics cards and computer chips. As a result the manufacturers have struggled under the weight of demand.

If you want to learn more about cryptocurrency mining, you can see just how many graphics cards it requires below.

Cryptocurrency mining is illegal in China and importing graphics cards comes with far stricter regulations. As reported by Chinese tech site MyDrivers, the cards seized were XFX brand, equivalent to AMD brand RX 6700 XT cards. Around 20million yuan, or £2.4million worth of hardware has been seized.

The cards came under scrutiny after an official noticed that some of the products had been re-labeled. This isn't illegal in and of itself, as it is a common practice with refurbished graphics card. However, when comparing the specifications on the labels to the cards themselves, it seems they were not a match.

There could be a few reasons for this. As import tax is based on the value of the products, it could be that the company was attempting to under-value the items in a bid to spend less on import taxes. As graphics cards are incredibly expensive components, it makes sense that the company would want to lower costs.

The other reason is the nature of the cards if they are indeed being refurbished and resold. Cryptocurrency mining is incredibly energy intensive and tends to burn out graphics cards quickly. It has been suggested that companies are then refurbishing these cards, or rebuying cards close to burn out, and then selling them on to people who require them for less energy intensive activities like gaming.