As the price of bitcoin has climbed, so has its environmental cost
Governments and climate-conscious investors are starting to take note
BITCOIN HAS gained many admirers since its launch in 2009. Once the domain of anarchists and Redditors, the digital currency has since piqued the interest of hedge-fund managers and tech entrepreneurs—most notably Elon Musk, the eccentric founder of Tesla and SpaceX. In February Tesla announced that it had invested $1.5bn in the cryptocurrency and would begin accepting the tokens as payment for its electric cars. Overnight, bitcoin’s price shot to a record-shattering $46,000. The total value of bitcoins in circulation, at more than $900bn, now exceeds Facebook’s market capitalisation.
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