Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Sep 18, 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

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
×