Cryptocurrency price collapse offers hope for slowing climate change – here’s how
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin were meant to be used as digital cash. Instead, they’ve become popular as speculative investments.
As well as being resource-intensive and inherently wasteful, cryptocurrencies are also incredibly volatile. Prices for the largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ethereum, have both dropped by over 55% in six months, leading some to suggest that regulation is needed to contain the turmoil.
Some are blaming sliding prices on one specific contagion, a collapsing “stablecoin” called TerraUSD which is supposed to be pegged to the US dollar.
But the current cryptocurrency market crash is more likely a combination of lots of factors. Read more: Cryptocurrencies: why they've crashed and what it could mean for their future For years, interest rates have been close to zero, making bank bonds and treasury bills look boring as investments, while cryptocurrencies and digital non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) linked to artwork, look appealing.
