De Vries estimates that the bitcoin network uses about 204 terrawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year, around the same as the energy consumption of Thailand and above that of all but 23 sovereign nations.
The higher the value of the reward, the more energy it is worth using to try to win it, ensuring that as the price of bitcoin rose from $8,000 in October 2019 to $60,000 two years later, the energy use of the sector rose too, from 73TWh to its current high.
The continued turmoil in the cryptocurrency markets means the sector may have further to contract. On Wednesday morning, tether, a stablecoin that effectively functions as a bank, paid out a further $1.5bn to depositors withdrawing their cash from its coffers. In the past week, the slow-motion bank run has seen $9bn of its reserves withdrawn, more than 10% of its total market cap and well over twice the cash-on-hand it declared it had at the beginning of the year.
