Ethereum’s price declined to a new weekly low of $435 after a CNBC report said that Bitmain and other Chinese companies were developing a powerful mining surface.
CNBC analyst, Christopher Rolland, who visited China last week found that companies were developing an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) made specifically for mining ethereum. Bitmain’s product will begin shipping in the next quarter.
An ASIC is a chip that is developed for the sole purpose of mining cryptocurrencies. For example, bitcoin’s ASICs made mining available to people from around the world.
In the past, ethereum miners used GPUs to mine currencies which led to the scarcity of GPUs for gaming and graphics. The new product by Bitmain will radically change the mining industry and centralize the industry creating barriers for casual miners.
In other crypto news, Twitter followed the lead of Facebook and Google by banning cryptocurrency and ICO- related ads. The new move is intended to protect users, who have in the past lost millions of dollars through crypto frauds. In the next 30 days, the company will roll out the ban, which includes cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrency wallet services.
The ETH/USD pair could remain under pressure as traders come up with ways to maneuver the latest social media regulations. It is currently trading at the lowest level since November. Traders should now pay close attention to the $400-dollar level which the pair could cross. If it does, more weaknesses could happen. Alternatively, the current lows could open up opportunities for traders who want to take a contrarian view and buy.
