Why is it people think Ethereum mining is what's driving this?
The mass mining farms don't give a shit about Ethereum. They literally mine whatever coin is most profitable to then be exchanged into Bitcoin. Everyone's going after BTC. There's a Bitcoin ATM in a service station convenience store near my house.
No one is going to give a shit when Ethereum moves to proof of stake, because they'll just switch to some other coin that still uses proof of work and thereby mines easily on their GPU farm and can then be exchanged for BTC.
If there is a significant gap between Ethereum and the second most profitable coin, taking Ethereum out of the market will make the whole mining business less profitable.
(This will in turn make some operations no longer economically viable, dropping GPU demand)
The mass mining farms don't give a shit about Ethereum. They literally mine whatever coin is most profitable to then be exchanged into Bitcoin. Everyone's going after BTC. There's a Bitcoin ATM in a service station convenience store near my house.
No one is going to give a shit when Ethereum moves to proof of stake, because they'll just switch to some other coin that still uses proof of work and thereby mines easily on their GPU farm and can then be exchanged for BTC.