Elon Musk Counters Kraken CEO On Bitcoin Being 'Greener' Than Critics Say

What Happened: Jesse Powell, CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, thinks Elon Musk has more to learn on the topic of Bitcoin mining.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Powell said that Bitcoin BTC/USD is “a lot greener than people give it credit for” addressing the Tesla Inc TSLA CEO’s concerns on Bitcoin’s energy consumption.

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“It’s a way to capture a lot of discarded and lost energy, it’s a way to bootstrap renewables, so I think it’s doing a lot, actually, for the renewable energy sector,” said Powell.

“I don’t know how long Elon has been studying this, but I think he’s got some more studying to do on this topic.”

Why It Matters: Musk responded to Powell’s comments in a tweet, asking on what data was Powell basing his assertions.

Based on what data?

— Elon Musk, the 2nd (@elonmusk) June 17, 2021

Powell himself replied to Musk on Twitter by sharing a post about Bitcoin’s energy use and saying, “We should be talking about energy production, how bitcoin increases efficiency and makes clean producers more sustainable.”

“It's pointless to critique the subjective, personal spending of energy buyers and money earners. Humanity values BTC.”

According to a study by the Cambridge Centre For Alternative Finance, 76% of all miners use renewable energies as part of their mix, and between 29% and 39% of all energy used comes from renewables.

Price Action: Bitcoin was trading at $37,585 at the time of writing, down 4.14% in the past 24 hours. The market-leading cryptocurrency represented 45.1% of the crypto market, with a daily trading volume of $36 billion at press time.

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