Greenpeace Blasts Wall Street for Fueling Bitcoin's Energy Consumption

Greenpeace has accused Wall Street of playing a significant role in Bitcoin's environmental impact. The environmental group's new report asserts that Bitcoin mining, now dominated by traditional financial companies, consumes vast amounts of energy, equivalent to the entire gold mining industry or a country like Poland. In 2023, Bitcoin mining consumed approximately 121 TWh of electricity, generating substantial carbon emissions. The report identifies Trinity Capital, Stone Ridge Holdings, BlackRock, Vanguard, and MassMutual as the top five financiers of carbon pollution from Bitcoin mining in 2022, collectively responsible for over 1.7 million metric tons of CO2 emissions. Greenpeace argues that Wall Street institutions, including banks, asset managers, and venture capitalists, are incentivizing Bitcoin miners to use more energy through tax breaks and bank benefits. They emphasize the need for transparency and accountability from both Bitcoin miners and financial institutions. Greenpeace proposes several solutions, including disclosure of energy use and carbon emissions, fair compensation for electricity consumption, and exploring alternative consensus mechanisms to address Bitcoin's energy-intensive proof-of-work model.