London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 08, 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

0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Matt Taibbi Slams Media for Role in Russiagate Narrative
Pilots Call for Mental Health Support Without Stigma
All Five Trapped Miners Found Dead After El Teniente Mine Collapse
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
×