Nvidia had already been through one crypto bust at that point. The long view was that there will be another one and they wanted to keep their more stable market

Nvidia had already been through one crypto bust at that point. The long view was that there will be another one and they wanted to keep their more stable markets viable for the future and not get demand slaughtered by mass dumping of used cards on the market when crypto dipped again. Of course, the AI thing exploded afterwards this time so the demand dip didn't happen.