ASIC's require a big initial cost to set up the manufacturing.  The first chip is $millions, then they are a few dollars each after that.  There is no (viable) open source toolchain for hardware production, and even the software tools required for producing an ASIC are around 6 digits USD.  That being said, the cost to start manufacturing our ASIC would not be much for a business or startup, maybe $3m.  Plenty of companies and crypto hodlers have that kind of cash.