https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v7dwzy/sec-fines-nvidia-dollar55-million-for-not-telling-investors-crypto-mining-drove-sales

The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined graphics card manufacturer Nvidia $5.5 million, saying it failed to tell investors a spike in demand was driven by people buying its cards to mine cryptocurrency.

Crytpominers use GPUs to generate Ethereum, and other Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies. As interest in cryptocurrency spiked and the price of various coins rose, people rushed to buy GPUs to cash in on the phenomenon. The sudden spike in GPU demand was good for Nvidia in the short term. It couldn’t keep its graphics cards on the shelf.