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Crypto Mining In Crosshairs: Sen. Warren Demands Mining Transparency From EPA & DOE

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Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to force crypto miners to disclose their energy use and emissions. 

In a tweet, Warren highlighted that the federal agencies have the authority to require such transparency, and it’s time for them to use it. She emphasized the need for full disclosure of how crypto mining is affecting the environment and the power grid.

Uncovering The Crypto Mining Footprint

Democratic lawmakers are pushing federal agencies to speed up their plans to require crypto mining companies to report their emissions and energy consumption. 

In a letter to the EPA and DOE, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Dick Durbin, and Representatives Jared Huffman, Katie Porter, and Rashida Tlaib urged the agencies to implement a mandatory disclosure regime as soon as possible.

The letter mentioned that the agencies have “clear authority” to require such disclosures and asked for timelines on when they plan to start executing their powers. 

The latest move is part of a probe initiated by Democratic lawmakers last year when they asked the largest crypto mining companies in the US to provide information on their energy consumption and pollution.

Despite some data being provided, the lawmakers were not satisfied with the incomplete responses from the companies. It led to the request for the EPA and DOE to require public disclosure of the information to get a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of crypto mining on the power grid and the environment.

According to a September report from the White House, the crypto industry in the US is estimated to use roughly as much electricity as all the nation’s home computers combined. 

The report recommended that the EPA and DOE work together to develop performance standards for crypto companies to transition to clean energy and use less energy overall. 

If that doesn’t work, the report suggests that the Biden Administration should explore executive actions, and Congress might consider legislation. Any potential policies would likely focus on Bitcoin, which is still the most popular and polluting cryptocurrency. 

Bitcoin miners set up data farms filled with specialized hardware to solve computational puzzles, an energy-inefficient process that generates significant emissions. The miners are rewarded with new tokens, but the incentive has fallen along with Bitcoin prices.

Related Reading | Weekly Market Watch: Bitcoin & Ethereum’s Bulls Slowdowns, Low Cap Tokens Experience Growth

Bitcoin Mining Companies Owe Over $4B, Core Scientific Owing the Most: Report

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An analysis of public Bitcoin mining companies by the Hashrate Index revealed that they owe more than $4 billion. The largest of them has already filed for bankruptcy due to its unmanageable debt load.

On December 23rd, the Bitcoin mining analyst published a research report detailing the debt burdens of public miners and outlining who owes the most money.

Publicly-traded mining companies that once benefited from high profits and strong cash flow have now been doomed by their missteps. Their debts have increased tenfold as they struggle to stay afloat – instead of paying down debt, they are forced to restructure. 

These restructurings typically turn debt into almost worthless equity, meaning both equity and debt holders suffer massive losses.

The report also asserts that there will probably be additional restructurings and maybe even bankruptcies in the future because the sector has unsustainably high debt levels. However, “some public miners barely have any debt.”

Bitcoin Miner Core Scientific In Led With $1.3B

As expected, the report discloses that Core Scientific, the largest publicly traded bitcoin miner by hashrate, has the highest debt, with $1.3 billion in liabilities listed on its financial sheet as of September 30th.

Such a heavy debt burden leaves little else for the company to spend its money on besides paying off its monthly creditors. Without being able to do so, it was forced to declare bankruptcy after having accumulated such large amounts of debt all at once.

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Source: Hashrate Index

Marathon, with $851 million in obligations, is the second-largest creditor. Greenidge is the third-biggest debtor with $218 million but is in a restructuring procedure that might significantly lower its debt.

According to the report, debt-to-equity ratios of two or more are seen as dangerous in most sectors, but in the infamously unstable bitcoin mining industry, it should ideally be far lower.

The highest debt-to-equity ratio among publicly traded miners is Core Scientific’s 26.7, which is hardly surprising given its huge liabilities.

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Source: Hashrate Index

Nevertheless, a significantly high debt-to-equity ratio of 1.8, compared to most other industries, is achieved by the whole bitcoin mining industry, which has total liabilities of $4 billion and equity of $2.2 billion.

Related Reading | OKX Publishes Second POR Report, Setting New Standard For Transparency

British Columbia Pulls Plug on Crypto Mining Requests For 18 Months

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BC Hydro suspends electricity requests from crypto mining operations for 18 months to protect the province’s clean electrical supply and support its economic and climate action goals, according to the British Columbia government’s official press release published on December 21st.

B.C. Hydro is a government-owned corporation that provides electricity exclusively for British Columbia. The short-term ban will protect B.C.’s electricity supply – so they and the provincial government can work out to create a long-term framework for crypto-mining activities.

Canada’s other provinces have made such moves. Since 2018, electricity limitations for cryptocurrency mining have been irregularly imposed and repealed in Quebec, Canada’s francophone province. 

According to the press release:

After suspending cryptocurrency mining connection requests to study its effects on electricity supply, Hydro-Québec implemented a new framework for cryptocurrency service that includes higher rates and a cap on the amount of electricity available for cryptocurrency mining.

Quebec requested officials to divert power away from cryptocurrency firms again on December 8th of this year. Quebec’s policy, like that of British Columbia, is limited to new applicants.

Similarly, Manitoba, a province in central Canada, declared an 18-month suspension on new crypto miners’ requests for electricity connections last month.

According to Statista‘s statistics, in May 2022, Bitcoin’s annualized electricity footprint surpassed all previous highs. It comes from a source that tries to calculate how much energy Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin use (BTH). At a record-breaking “204.5 TWh per year,” the yearly electricity usage of Bitcoin has reportedly surpassed that of Finland as a whole.

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Source: Statista

Pause On Electrical Connections For Crypto Mining

Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne said:

Cryptocurrency mining consumes massive amounts of electricity to run and cool banks of high-powered computers 24/7/365, while creating very few jobs in the local economy.

He explained that they were taking this action to preserve their power supply so it could be used for those who would switch over to electric vehicles and heat pumps and those involved in an electrification project.

Miners of cryptocurrencies have shown an unusual level of interest in B.C.’s clean, inexpensive power. There are now 21 projects requiring 1,403 megawatts in total, which will be temporarily stopped. 

That equates to the energy required to fuel 2.1 million electric vehicles or almost 570,000 houses in British Columbia annually. However, both newly proposed mining projects and those in the early phases of the connection procedure with B.C. Hydro may be delayed or stopped.

The press release further ensures that existing mining projects won’t be impacted, nor will a select few that are very far along in the connection process with B.C. Hydro.

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Argo Blockchain Is Running Out of Cash; Will It Be Forced Into Bankruptcy? 

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On December 12th, Argo Blockchain, a large-scale supplier of services for mining cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, made a formal announcement that it “is at risk” it might not have enough funds on hand to continue running its business in the coming month.

In the blog post, it is said that the company is in preliminary talks with a third party to sell some assets and enter into a financing deal for equipment, which it feels would help its balance sheet and liquidity.

As TronWeekly recently reported, compass Mining’s content director Will Foxley tweeted a screenshot of the Argo Blockchain on December 9th concerning the company’s impending bankruptcy on December 12th.

However, two days ago, after accidentally disclosing sensitive information about its bankruptcy, it now officially announced that there is a possibility of such action: 

The company is hopeful that it will be able to consummate the transaction outside of a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the United States, although there is no assurance that the company can avoid such a filing.

In order to analyze these strategic possibilities, they hired investment bankers Stifel GMP and its subsidiary Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC, legal counsel McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and financial counsel Berkeley Research Group, LLC.

The company also clarifies that on December 9th, trade in its securities on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq was suspended due to accidentally disclosed information claiming that the company was going to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “Shareholders should note that the company has not filed for bankruptcy at this time.”

Argo Blockchain Suffering From Financial Issues

Previously, Argo had already warned that it was in danger of stopping operations owing to a shortage of funding. According to a report on October 31st, the cryptocurrency mining company was now looking for new financing options after failing to get significant funding from a key investor.

According to the press release statement:

The company signed a non-binding LOI with a strategic investor to raise approximately £24 million ($27 million) via a subscription for ordinary shares. The company no longer believes that this subscription will be consummated under the previously announced terms.

At that time, the company has also taken action to protect cash and further maximize liquidity. For cash profits of $5.6 million, the company sold 3,843 brand-new, unopened Bitmain S19J Pro machines, totaling 384 PH/s of total hashrate capacity. 

These units were the final batch of the first Bitmain purchase, and installation was planned for October 2022. The company’s overall hashrate capacity thus stays at 2.5 EH/s.

Due to the lack of funding, Argo has been taking steps to protect its funds and maximize its liquidity. In the past, the company has actively sold its mined Bitcoin assets to reduce debt owed to crypto investment company Galaxy Digital. 

After selling 637 BTC in June 2022, Argo sold a further 887 BTC in July.  It subsequently joined a large group of cryptocurrency mining companies that decided to sell their own BTC during the bear market of 2022.

Argo Blockchain’s Bankruptcy Screenshot Leaked – Stakeholders To Brace For Dec 12

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Argo Blockchain, an enterprise-scale provider of cryptocurrency mining and smart contract services, will declare bankruptcy. On December 9th, Will Foxley, the content director at Compass Mining, tweeted a screenshot of the Argo Blockchain “special information for stakeholders” regarding its bankruptcy, scheduled for December 12th.

As the crypto industry heads towards deeper crypto winter, cryptocurrencies are not only feeling its effects, but even crypto-related companies are being drained of liquidity. 

2022 was a rough year for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin had fallen by 65% from the beginning of this very year, and many other coins followed closely in its wake to suffer complete collapses, too- like Luna, which lost all of its value. 

Additionally, a number of well-known companies went bankrupt early in the year, and when November came around, two more major cryptocurrency exchanges went bankrupt-FTX and BlockFi.

However, when we look up at the Argo Blockchain shares review from the start of the year, there is a significant change of about 94.34% from January 2022 to December 9th, according to the data from Tradingview.

ARBK 2022 12 10 01 29 38
Source: Tradingview

UK Suspends Argo Blockchain Shares

Another piece of news comes on sight on the same day that after the beleaguered Bitcoin miner revealed a fall in revenue for November, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority suspended shares of Argo Blockchain Plc, as reported by Bloomberg. However, this suspension is temporary. 

According to the report, similar decreases have been seen in American depository revenues. After a $27 million share sale looked to have fallen through in October, the mining company was told by authorities that it could be forced to close.

Argo mined 204 Bitcoin or Bitcoin Equivalents in October as opposed to 215 BTC in September 2022. The considerable rise in the “Bitcoin network difficulty” in October was the leading cause of the decline in BTC mined. 

Argo mined 198 BTC in November, compared to 204 BTC in October 2022. They all cite the same cause for the decline. As per the press release:

Argo generated this income at a Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin of 29% for the month of November (October 2022: 32%).

However, the Bloomberg report said the company is still in discussions about financing to give the company with working capital enough for its current needs.

Nevertheless, as the crypto bear market continues, there has been an increased level of financial difficulty among Bitcoin miners. Even large mining companies such as Argo are feeling the pressure. As recently as October, they announced they would have to cease operations due to a lack of funds.

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Blockstream Eyes Another Funding Round – This Time At A Lower Valuation “Below $1B”

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Blockstream, a crypto infrastructure company, has set up an investment round that will raise “fresh funds at a lower valuation” than its previous one, which is about below $1 billion, as reported by Bloomberg.

A source with knowledge of the situation who wanted to remain anonymous because they were talking about private information revealed the valuation amount. “One of the people said the figure may change.”

In terms of blockchain infrastructure, Blockstream is at the top of the world rankings. Liquid Network, a sidechain developed by it, allows financial institutions to tokenize assets while facilitating quicker Bitcoin payments. Additionally, the colocation of Bitcoin mining operations is made possible by Blockstream Mining’s enterprise-class mining facilities.

The 2014-founded business with headquarters in Montreal is engaged in a collaborative initiative with Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn has also backed Blockstreamm according to Bloomberg’s report.

However, the lower valuation funding move was prompted by the closure of the FTX Exchange, which made it difficult for digital asset firms to find investors willing to support them financially. However, when the company obtained $210 million from investors, including Baillie Gifford and iFinex, in August 2021, its worth was $3.2 billion; today, it is nearly 70% lower.

The investment was received at the same time that Blockstream hired the core team to develop its ASIC division and purchased Spondoolies’ intellectual property(a producer of Bitcoin mining equipment).

Blockstream CEO Says, The Fund Is For Hosting Crypto Miners

Adam Back, the CEO of Blockstream, declined to respond to Blomberg about the amount of the investment round or value but stated that it would be used to increase the capacity to host cryptocurrency miners.

As miners sought large-scale hosting, he noted that they quickly sold out of all of their capacity and had a massive backlog of both current and potential clients. 

The report asserts that many cryptocurrency miners have been hard hit by the drop in the value of Bitcoin and other tokens, as well as the rise in electricity prices, which has resulted in loan defaults and the confiscation of computing equipment.

The CEO of Blockstream said:

While Bitcoin price and mining profitability are down, hosting rates have risen over the last quarters, and our mining services are a rapidly expanding, high-margin enterprise business for us.

The crypto industry is struggling to recover from this year’s downturn and is beset by worries about future contagion following FTX’s collapse, making venture finance more difficult to come by.

Not just Blockstream was thinking about flat or lower fundraising rounds, but so were companies like Amber Group and Blockchain.com.The previous record-breaking rate of investment into blockchain firms has been replaced by far colder circumstances during the crypto winter.

Related Reading | Bitcoin And Ethereum ETFs Filed By Hong Kong’s Three AUMs

Here’s How Cryptocurrency Miners In Russia Are Capitalizing On The Bear Market

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The continuing cryptocurrency mining problem doesn’t seem to be bothering Russian cryptocurrency miners, since local demand for mining equipment is said to have increased in Q4 2022.

According to local news outlet Kommersant, several Russian suppliers of crypto mining hardware have experienced a sharp increase in demand for application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips made specifically for mining.

Local dealer Chilkoot claimed that their ASIC sales in November and October were greater than all of its sales for the third quarter. The distributor reportedly sold 65% more hardware in the last nine months than in 2021.

Chilkoot development manager Artem Eremin said,

“We are working with legal entities, and we see that they began to buy 30% more equipment in one transaction than at the beginning of the year.”

The demand for crypto mining services has reportedly grown by 150% over the last 10 months at BitRiver, Russia’s largest data center facility.

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Source

Russia is reportedly experiencing a surge in demand for cryptocurrency mining equipment at a time when the mining sector is struggling; in late November, total Bitcoin mining revenue fell to two-year lows. Due to the significant losses brought on by the current bear market in cryptocurrencies, several mining companies, like Argo Blockchain and Core Scientific, have even questioned if they would be able to continue operations.

Russian Miners Stockpiling Cryptocurrency ASICs

Russian miners are likely stockpiling more crypto ASICs as a result of the country’s cheap energy and lower prices for mining equipment.

Despite a sharp decline in the price of bitcoin this year, 51ASIC co-founder Mikhail Brezhnev allegedly stated that mining Bitcoin in Russia can still be viable. The executive claims that mining 1 BTC with the most up-to-date equipment may produce about $11,000 at an electricity cost of $0,07 per 1 kilowatt-hour. According to data from CoinGecko, Bitcoin is currently trading at $16,975, down around 70% over the previous year.

According to Vladislav Antonov, a financial analyst for BitRiver, the current market environment has been advantageous for the Russian industrial cryptocurrency mining business. He pointed out that a decline in purchasing prices, which have gotten as near as feasible to the cost of manufacture, stimulated demand for ASIC equipment in the wholesale market. According to reports, the expert suggested that was the ideal place to start investing.

A mining entry during a bear market, in Antonov’s estimation, may be able to produce “substantial profit of tens of percent” over the course of three years.

Uzbekistan Announces Demands to Crypto Miners

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Uzbekistan’s National Agency of Prospective Projects (NAPP) made public its expectations of cryptocurrency mining companies. Only businesses that employ solar energy would be permitted to mine Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptocurrencies.

The normative act, dated June 24, on the government website, outlines the confirmation of “Guidelines on the registration of the crypto assets mining,” and it establishes July 9 as the completion date. The document’s second article uses uncompromising language in the following manner:

“Mining is being carried out only by the legal entity with the use of electric energy, provided by a solar photovoltaic power plant.”

Uzbekistan says that miners should own solar photovoltaic power plant

Any mining operation must also receive a certificate and register with the national registration of cryptocurrency mining enterprises, according to the executive directive.

A short list of papers is required for this process, and it shouldn’t take more than 20 days from submission to the licensing body’s final judgment. After registration, the certificates are good for a year.

All of the money made from mining operations would be exempt from taxation, but the mining farms would be subject to special energy consumption tariffs set by the Uzbek government.

However, only exchange platforms with Uzbek registration numbers would be permitted to perform trade activities using mined assets. It would be forbidden to mine coins that are anonymous.

With the goal of implementing unique crypto regulating regime in the nation, the recently reformed NAPP was designated as the exclusive cryptocurrency regulator for Uzbekistan in April 2022. This action was one of several that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan has taken to establish the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.

A regulation barring local businesses from establishing their own cryptocurrency exchanges in Uzbekistan was signed by Mirziyoyev in September 2018. Only cryptocurrency exchanges founded by foreign legal companies were given legal standing by the law.

Uzbekistan Legalizes Crypto Mining, but Only Solar-Powered

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Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country, has voted to enable enterprises to mine cryptocurrency using solar energy. Crypto mining will also provide tax benefits to the corporations.

All crypto activities by domestic and foreign enterprises will be free from income tax in the country.

In 2018, Uzbekistan welcomed the cryptocurrency industry by allowing cryptocurrency trading, but only through a domestic crypto exchange. In addition, the country has announced several renewable energy projects, most of which are solar and wind power facilities.

According to a Reuters article, the Tashkent administration wants miners to use solar panels to power their fields.

Minimization will not require a license, but enterprises must register with the newly founded Uzbek National Agency for Perspective Projects.

vietnam market saw drop in sales of crypto mining rigs but is seeing a resurgence now
Uzbekistan Legalizes Crypto Mining, but Only Solar-Powered 7

Uzbekistan to encourage mining with less impact on energy

Mining businesses, on the other hand, are allowed to connect to the electricity grid for double the normal fee. During high usage periods, however, Uzbekistan will impose additional levies on operations.

According to the study, certain cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, are generated using a method known as proof of work, in which computers “mine” the money by solving complicated problems. Large quantities of electricity are used to power the computers.

Kazakhstan, for example, has tightened down on mining activities after they stretched the country’s electricity infrastructure, which is dominated by old coal power plants.

The move is in response to power outages that hit Kazakhstan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan earlier this year, following a mass exodus of Chinese bitcoin miners to Kazakhstan following Beijing’s blanket ban in June.

Kazakhstan’s electricity infrastructure, which also serves Uzbekistan and Kyrgzstan’s commercial and residential sectors, was severely damaged.

Electricity, heat, and gas supplies were all affected, and government officials subsequently blamed crypto miners for the extraordinary spikes in energy consumption.

While no one was killed as a result of the outages, arrivals at Tashkent International Airport in Uzbekistan were halted, hundreds were trapped in train cars, and dozens were trapped in downed elevators and ski lifts, according to analysts at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program.

By comparison, Uzbekistan mines significantly less bitcoin. Last August, the country generated only 0.05 percent of the overall hashrate, but that might change now that crypto miners are exempt from paying income tax for the foreseeable future.

Iran: Illegal crypto miners can no longer avail subsidized electricity

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The Iranian administration has decided to pass new legislation, increasing penalties to prevent illegal cryptocurrency mining from using subsidized electricity, an official with the country’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company [known as Tavanir] announced.

According to the Tehran times coverage, the increase in punishments includes rising fines by a minimum of three and a maximum of five times, imprisonment of the offender, and even cancellation of their business license for repeated violations.

“Any use of subsidized electricity, intended for households, industrial, agricultural, and commercial subscribers, for mining cryptocurrency is prohibited,” Mohammad Khodadadi Bohlouli, an official working with the power firm said.

Misusing subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrencies reduces the quality of the electricity supply in the national grid and damages peoples’ electrical appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, and so on, the official noted.

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Iran: Illegal crypto miners can no longer avail subsidized electricity 9

Following the Iranian government’s approval of cryptocurrency mining as industrial activity in 2019, numerous mining rigs cropped up across the nation, thanks to the extremely low-cost electricity. In January 2020, the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade has issued over 1,000 licenses for such mining units.

But amongst them, some unauthorized miners also started mushrooming which used household electricity, causing major issues for the country’s electricity industry which is already facing serious problems created by drought and reduced rainfall.

Finally, in May 2021, the Iranian Energy Ministry’s Spokesman for the electricity sector Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi warned that those cryptocurrency miners using subsidized electricity would have to pay a heavy fine if identified.

In addition to that, those miners must also compensate for the damages they cause to the electricity network, Rajabi Mashhadi added.

Iran’s Crypto-Rial would go live soon

With regards to crypto legalization, the west Asian country does not recognize cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, a high-ranking government official has emphasized. His statement came as the Central Bank of Iran announced rules for the issuance of digital coins in the country, five days ago.

Dubbed “Crypto-Rial,” the pilot phase will begin in the near future. Without giving any specific dates, the Central Bank stated that the Crypto-Rial would play a bigger role and would provide a competing platform for stablecoins used globally.