Bitmain reportedly suspends Bitcoin miner orders amid booming secondhand supply

Chinese mining giant Bitmain is reportedly scrambling to respond to market conditions amid a major crackdown on the crypto mining activity by local authorities.

According to a Wednesday report by Chinese news agency Sina Finance, Bitmain has halted global spot sales for its new Bitcoin (BTC) mining devices in order to avoid losses by customers amid massive selling on the secondary market.

By postponing the sales, Bitmain intends to help miners exiting the industry get better prices for mining equipment as well as protect the firm from further price decline over the longer term, Bloomberg reported. A Bitmain spokesperson said that the company will continue supporting future delivery of devices used to mine smaller altcoins. The representative did not elaborate on when Bitmain expects to resume global spot delivery.

Arthur Li, founder of Bitmain-backed mining startup Sai Technology, highlighted massive selling pressure for top-tier Bitmain miners in the secondhand market. Some of the flagship miner devices by Bitmain and rival Whatsminer are now sold at around 150 yuan ($23) per terahash per second, down from 600 yuan in April, when Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $64,000.

Related: Bitcoin hash rate hits 8-month low as Chinese miners power down

A sharp decline in ASIC Bitcoin miner prices comes in line with a major price drop of Nvidia GPUs that are often used for cryptocurrency mining. As previously reported, some graphics card prices in China dropped as much as two-thirds on domestic e-commerce websites in June.

Bitmain is reportedly considering a move overseas. According to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, the firm announced a full relocation abroad on Tuesday.