https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/26/analyst-slashes-amd-nvidia-price-targets-on-new-cryptocurrency-mining-chip-from-china.html"During our travels through Asia last week, we confirmed that Bitmain has already developed an ASIC [application-specific integrated circuit] for mining Ethereum, and is readying the supply chain for shipments in 2Q18," analyst Christopher Rolland wrote in a note to clients Monday. "While Bitmain is likely to be the largest ASIC vendor (currently 70-80% of Bitcoin mining ASICs) and the first to market with this product, we have learned of at least three other companies working on Ethereum ASICs, all at various stages of development."
Why wait three years to develop ETH ASIC? And then release it just before the rumored POS switch?
Money. ~$10M/day is made mining ETH now. A year ago it was ~$1M/day, and 15 months ago it was <$500K/day.
Bitmain's ethash miner is not going to have a significant impact, because unlike bitcoin and sia mining, it requires large amounts of RAM. The costs of the RAM significantly exceeds the costs of the ASICs.
At US$450, ETH is now 1/3 of it's peak in Jan, and that is what is having the biggest impact on mining and GPU demand. Summer is coming in the Norther Hemisphere, which means miners with expensive electricity costs will be shutting down rigs. Unless the price of ETH climbs back over $1000, I predict the GPU shortage will be over by mid-summer, and GPU cards will be readily available at their MSRP.