Having claimed 41% of all bitcoin ETP flows in Q1, BTCE saw $100m outflows in the week to 30 April, according to data from Ultumus.
Despite a subsequent recovery in the crypto’s price, the mining mishap has done little to silence critics raising questions about bitcoin’s environmental, social and governance credentials.
Bendiksen also agreed with other analysis that bitcoin miners are mobile and seek to access the cheapest and often most freely supplied energy sources – and this is not necessarily limited to coal.
Regarding scope for further decarbonisation of the world’s most popular digital currency, innovations such as the MCO2 blockchain-backed carbon credit will help, as will further regulatory pressure.
Alongside being used to launder dirty money, bitcoin trading also has a track record of security concerns, such as the half a billion-dollar Mt.
However, as for bitcoin itself, it still has a way to go before regulators cease to perceive it as a threat to unsophisticated, prospective investors.