Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025

Bitcoin in crosshairs as EU goes after non-green crypto

Bitcoin in crosshairs as EU goes after non-green crypto

Energy labels, climate disclosures and minimum standards could engulf the industry in the coming years.

The EU wants to shame the world of crypto into greener practices — and Bitcoin is first in line.

The world's most popular crypto will likely fall under a scheme to grade digital currencies according to their energy efficiency, which the European Union plans to outline next week and roll out by 2025, a draft document obtained by POLITICO showed.

The scheme aims to nudge crypto companies to ditch power-intensive mining practices that can see transactions over a year use up as much energy as some countries over the same period of time. Officials cheered earlier this month when Ethereum, the world's second most valuable crypto, switched over to greener processing software as part of a so-called "merge." Bitcoin has no plans to follow Ethereum's lead.

The labeling is just one facet of a broader effort by the EU to rein in cryptocurrencies at a time when the bloc is grappling with a combined energy-and-inflation crisis while trying to meet ambitious climate goals.

Another EU bill known as MiCA, due to come into force in 2024, will force crypto currencies to disclose their carbon footprint and how their operations will impact the environment.

While the White House has also warned that crypto mining could undermine U.S. efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Europe is the first major trading bloc to regulate digital currencies — and aims to encourage other countries to follow its lead by establishing international crypto standards.

“The Commission will cooperate internationally with, and build on the technical expertise of, standardisation bodies to develop by 2025 an energy-efficiency label for blockchains, as well as minimum energy efficiency requirements,” the draft said.

In the meantime, EU capitals should develop measures to “lower the electricity consumption of crypto-asset miners” and reduce high energy prices, the 22-page document read.


Shame-coin


When the price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $67,000 in late 2021, leaders were more focused on emerging from the pandemic than reining in crypto's carbon footprint. But the world has changed.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine worsened an existing energy crisis, pummeling the EU and U.S. economies and setting off a scramble for new sources of energy that put a spotlight on energy-intensive practices.

The huge energy demands of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin — which have seen some "miners" fill warehouses with specialized computers to solve complex equations and complete transactions on the blockchain — are at odds with the prevailing mood, and are increasingly in the crosshairs of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.

“As a regulator, we will take sustainability and ESG [environmental, social and governance] factors increasingly into account in all of our work that we do,” the chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority, Verena Ross, told POLITICO when asked how far the regulator will go to green the crypto industry.

To achieve this, ESMA will focus on promoting industry transparency, understanding the signs of greenwashing and identifying emerging trends and risks within the market. “All three focus points speak in a way on what might come specifically under the crypto space,” added Ross.

That said, not everyone is on board with the coercive approach.

Industry lobbyists aside, officials inside the Commission and even among the Greens in European Parliament are not convinced energy grades will bring about the sort of change officials hope it will. Only around 10 percent of the world’s crypto-mining activity is based in the EU, they point out.

“Creating an EU labeling system for crypto will not solve the problem as long as crypto-mining can continue outside the Union, also driven by EU demand,” Spanish Green lawmaker Ernest Urtasun, who led a failed battle within Parliament to phase the most energy-intensive blockchains out of Europe, wrote in an email. “The Commission should rather focus on developing minimum sustainability standards with a clear timeline to comply.”

There are precedents for change, too. By moving to different processing software, Ethereum reduced its electricity use by 99.95 percent.

“Ethereum recent upgrade just showed that phasing out from environmentally harmful protocols is actually feasible, without causing any disruption to the network,” Urtasun added.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Harvard Urges US to Unfreeze Funds for Public Health Research
Businessman Mauled by Lion at Luxury Namibian Lodge
Researchers Consider New Destinations Beyond the U.S.
53-Year-Old Doctor Claims Biological Age of 23
Trump Struggles to Secure Trade Deals With China and Europe
Russia to Return 6,000 Corpses Under Ukraine Prisoner Swap Deal
Microsoft Lays Off Hundreds More Amid Restructuring
Harvey Weinstein’s Publicist Embraces Notoriety
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Trump Cancels NASA Nominee Over Democratic Donations
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
×