I have a contact in China which I use for sourcing inventory. Last week I asked her to look into getting ahold of the Avalon chips for less than the 0.085~ BTC rate the chips are typically going for in this forum's group buy threads. She contacted the TSMC foundry, which said that they aren't producing the chips anymore. At the time I brushed it off as maybe she had bad information or any other numbers of things could have happened, but with this new information this does not bode well.
Is it not possible that TSMC would just deny producing Avalon chips due to security/insurance concerns?
Admitting it is pretty much saying "come on in guys, we produce money generating ICs!"