EU Tightens Noose Around Bitcoin Price To Protect Ethereum, Internal Documents Reveal

Bitcoin is the first mover, and for that reason alone, it will always be the king of cryptocurrencies.

Every desperate attempt to kill the most sought-after crypto asset or claims of it being dead only seems to have made the crypto stronger and more resilient than ever.

Every successful trader holds BTC. A beginner in cryptocurrency will most often choose to start investing in Bitcoin before they consider other digital coins like Ethereum, Shiba Inu, Solana, and others.  

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A Call To Environmental Sustainability

Bicoin has been in hot water recently because of environmental issues as crypto mining eats up a lot of energy.

As the cryptocurrency’s prices shoot way up, the energy demands required in minting new digital coins, validating transactions, and ensuring network security increase as well.

Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum utilizes less energy. Talks regarding the upgrade to Ethereum were put off until the end of the year but European Union officials are continually rallying behind ETH and against BTC because of increased carbon footprint and protecting ETH and other altcoins.

Bitcoin's carbon footprint is one of the major factors the EU is clamping down on the crypto. (Image credit: Skalex)

Getting Rid Of Bitcoin POW

Early this year, the European Commission together with the Swedish financial regulators deliberated the idea of imposing a ban on Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (POW) or mining process because of its destructive impact on the environment.

EU officials even wanted to totally outlaw BTC trading to ultimately stop its ballooning energy usage and other related issues.

Evidently, they even wanted to pressure the crypto’s developers and community hoping to push the hot buttons so they make that switch to Ethereum in the quest to churn less energy for POS, or proof-of-stake process.

Clearly, they wanted Bitcoin users to make that shift in the same way that Ethereum users were able to do so. The effort is in consortium solely to protect other (more) sustainable coins.

BTC total market cap at $736 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com

Hitting Where It Hurts

EU officials voted against Bitcoin or crypto mining in general because data coming from the University of Cambridge Crypto Electricity Consumption Index showed that BTC mining activity gobbles up nearly 140 terawatt-hours (Twh) of electricity annually.

Bitcoin’s price increase also influences ETH price. Some participants have expressed contradicting opinions saying that forbidding the crypto’s trading or mining won’t have the slightest impact on Bitcoin energy use.

FinTech and Blockchain specialist Alex de Vries pointed out that the only way to bring down energy consumption is to target where it hurts the most – the BTC price. To make it happen, policymakers should ban the trading of some cryptos and also impose taxes on BTC transactions.

Bitcoin is seen to rise to $100,000 in one year. (Image credit: CryptoTapas)

No Way But Up

Meanwhile, Nexo CEO Antoni Trenchev, in an interview with CNBC, said that Bitcoin can hit around $100,000 in 12 months.

It can happen anytime. Other analysts predicted that BTC can even shoot to about half a million dollars per unit.

Imagine the ruckus it may create should the crypto does hit this unprecedented milestone. The EU, for sure, won’t just sit around and watch from the sidelines the amount of energy this event might incur.

Attempts to restrict or completely paralyze the crypto may be pointless.

The “king” can’t self-destruct.

You can never put a good coin down.

Not Bitcoin.

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Featured image from Cryptopolitan, chart from TradingView.com