TP-Link ASIC (opens in a new tab)which appears to be the cryptomining arm of TP-Link, has announced (opens in a new tab) The NX31 ASIC mining router that has Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. According to the specs, this $1,440 router has a built-in ASIC that mines crypto faster than the RTX 4090 and draws 1,200 watts under full load. The company’s website looks legitimate, but the press release sounds sketchy. We’ve reached out to TP-Link to double-check the information, but in the meantime, take this news with a grain of salt.
The NX31 (NX31-B2MR) reportedly works as a Wi-Fi 7 router and ASIC miner. The product page lacks some technical details, so it’s unclear how the NX31 works. The image of the NX31 device corresponds to TP-Link’s Archer BE900 Wi-Fi 7 router, and even the file name confirms it. So it’s either a placeholder or the NX31 could be based on the Archer BE900. In any case, we will have a better idea when TP-Link gets back to us.
According to the spec sheet, the NX31 delivers a hash rate of up to 31.2 TH/s, much faster than a GeForce RTX 4090. Except it seems to be for an ASIC-friendly mining algorithm (Kadena / Blake2S), and none in their right mind – who has to pay for electricity – would run them on a GPU these days. But there is still the question of efficiency.
The manufacturer branded the NX31 for Kadena (KDA), so support for other cryptocurrencies is unknown and unlikely. It appears to outperform cheaper ASIC miners, such as the Canaan Avalon A9 miner (20 TH/s), but lags behind Intel’s Bonanza Mine ASICs (34.5 – 47.7 TH/s). The problem is that we are looking at apples (SHA256 mining) and oranges (Kadena mining). The selling point for the NX31 is the device’s dual functionality as both a router and an ASIC-based cryptominer.
TP-Link ASIC did not share the dimensions of the NX31, but the ASIC miner reportedly weighs 3.9 kg (8.58 lbs). Vanilla Archer BE900 has an LED screen, which you can customize with weather, time or other graphics. On the NX31, the vendor added the functionality to display the hash rate and temperature. In addition, the machine has a metallic body and two fans to improve cooling and draws 1200W. However, you can’t just blindly plug the NX31 into your home socket, as the ASIC miner requires a 240V outlet.
On the router side, the other features of the NX31 match the Archer BE900. For example, it comes with quad-band technology and 12 internal antennas to improve coverage over large areas. In addition, the NX31 has a generous amount of Ethernet ports of various standards. The list includes one 10 Gbps WAN/LAN port, one 10 Gbps SFP+/RJ45 port, four 2.5 Gbps LAN ports and one 1 Gbps LAN port. For USB connectivity, the NX31 has one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port.
The NX31 is not the only ASIC miner in the TP-Link ASICs range. The company also sells the D11 (D11-B1FB) Doge and Litecoin miner for $570. The machine reportedly pumps out 610 Mh/s while drawing 400W. This model is more versatile as it can come in both 100V and 240V variants. TP-Link ASIC will ship the first batch on March 24th.
TP-Link ASIC has apparently already sold the first batch of NX31; therefore, the ASIC mining router is on backorder for an April release. It appears that the vendor has adjusted the price to $1,370, 5% lower than the launch price. Purchase orders are limited to three units per customer. TP-Link ASIC claims that the standard ROI (return on investment) time for the NX31 is between five to seven months, which seems very ambitious.
Based on the claimed mining performance of 31.2 TH/s for Kadena, it appears that the NX31 could mine around $4 worth of cryptocurrency per day at current prices. With a power consumption of 1200W and assuming $0.10 per kWh, that would bring the actual net profit down to about $1.40 per day, which means you’re looking at more like 1000 days to break even – and that’s assuming nothing bad happens to Kadena cryptocoin or NX31 in the meantime.
