Electricity used to mine bitcoin plummets as crypto crisis widens

Consumption down by third since 11 June, with even sharper falls among other cryptocurrency networks

The amount of electricity consumed by the largest cryptocurrency networks has decreased by up to 50% as the crypto winter" continues to eat at the incomes of miners" and financial contagion spreads further throughout the sector.

The electricity consumption of the bitcoin network has fallen by a third from its high of 11 June, down to an annualised 131 terawatt-hours a year, according to estimates from the crypto analyst Digiconomist. That still equates to the annual consumption of Argentina, with a single conventional bitcoin transaction using the same amount of electricity that a typical US household would use over 50 days.