Our story-focused brains want a bad guy; something/someone to blame. So the culprit keeps shifting based on whatever hypothesis managed to get traction this week. Like basically anything else, it's a confluence of factors. In this case, we have: production issues, supply chain disruptions, historically high consumer demand, a crypto boom, and probably more I'm forgetting.
In a way, it's kind of like the TP/bogroll shortage in the US at the beginning of the pandemic. Nobody was pooping more, but a few (relatively speaking) people panicked and bought way more than they needed. This helped spur a LOT of people to buy a little more than they needed. Since supply chains are so heavily optimized, stock got wiped out pretty quickly, so suddenly almost everyone's grabbing some as soon as it came on the shelf, so said shelves were always empty. Eventually enough folks got their supply to what they considered a comfortable level, so supply leveled out and it's been perfectly easy for awhile now to get as much TP as you like, whenever you like. Lather, rinse, repeat with hand sanitizer, liquid soap, flour, yeast, paper towels and now canning supplies.
Each factor is only part of the story. It's likely true that without the crypto craze, things wouldn't be as bad as they are, but I'd wager we'd still be seeing higher-than-MSRP pricing. As far as individual culpability in this whole debacle, one can look at it like this: I'm not going to vilify or scold anyone for running Nicehash to make a few $REGIONALCURRENCY. However, to claim one's participation isn't contributing at all is a bit like saying marine pollution isn't your fault because you only throw one bottle in the ocean a year. Confession time: I'm arguing with myself about whether or not to grab some BTC/ETH at the next ... crash, for lack of a better word. Pricing seems to follow a curve roughly shaped like a rising sawtooth wave, so it seems like a pretty decent bet. But then I'm also fueling the fire.
Tinfoil hat moment: A not-implausible theory is that some Russian and Chinese operations are state-sponsored as part of a strategy to get the world off of USD as a reserve currency.