By Anna Peel. Originally published at ValueWalk.
As cryptocurrencies look to revolutionize the financial market, there is a cost that comes from the sheer amount of energy required to mine them.
New research from Forex Suggest reveals the cryptocurrencies with the highest CO2 emissions, with Bitcoin alone generating 56.8m co2 emissions in 2021
Q4 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
The Most-Polluting Cryptocurrencies
| Rank | Cryptocurrency | Energy Used per Transaction (kWh) | CO2 per Transaction (tons) | CO2 per Transaction (scaled measurements) |
| 1 | Bitcoin | 707 | 0.5302500000 | 1,060.5 lbs |
| 2 | Ethereum | 62.56 | 0.0469200000 | 93.84 lbs |
| 3 | Bitcoin Cash | 18.957 | 0.0142177500 | 28.4355 lbs |
| 4 | Litecoin | 18.522 | 0.0138915000 | 27.783 lbs |
| 5 | Cardano | 0.5479 | 0.0004109250 | 13.1496 oz |
| 6 | Dogecoin | 0.12 | 0.0000900000 | 2.88 oz |
| 7 | Ripple | 0.0079 | 0.0000059250 | 0.1896 oz |
| 8 | Stellar | 0.00003 | 0.0000000225 | 0.00072 oz |
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Bitcoin
Bitcoin is by far the most energy-consuming cryptocurrency, using 707 kWh per transaction which results in 1,060.5 lbs of CO2 for every transaction (just over half a ton.)
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Ethereum
Ethereum uses the second most energy for each transaction: 62.56 kWh, which produces 93.84 lbs of CO2.
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Bitcoin Cash
In third place is Bitcoin Cash, a derivative of Bitcoin. This cryptocurrency uses 19.957 kWh per transaction and produces 28 lbs of CO2.
Cryptocurrencies That Are Increasing Their Emissions The Fastest
| Rank | Cryptocurrency | 2020 Annual Electricity Usage (kWh) | 2020 Annual Emissions (tons CO2) | 2021 Annual Electricity Usage (kWh) | 2021 Annual Emissions (tons CO2) | Change in Emissions (tons CO2) | Change in Emissions (%) |
| 1 | Bitcoin Cash | 232,339,798 | 174,255 | 1,970,044,710 | 1,477,534 | 1,303,279 | 748% |
| 2 | Cardano | 1,082,527 | 812 | 7,051,032 | 5,288 | 4,476 | 551% |
| 3 | Stellar | 16,869 | 13 | 48,851 | 37 | 24 | 190% |
| 4 | Litecoin | 343,124,180 | 257,343 | 693,681,721 | 520,261 | 262,918 | 102% |
| 5 | Ripple | 2,936,665 | 2,202 | 4,243,705 | 3,183 | 980 | 45% |
| 6 | Ethereum | 22,476,545,664 | 16,857,409 | 29,267,017,296 | 21,950,263 | 5,092,854 | 30% |
| 7 | Dogecoin | 1,697,513 | 1,273 | 1,897,998 | 1,423 | 150 | 12% |
| 8 | Bitcoin | 79,891,991,214 | 59,918,993 | 75,766,894,371 | 56,825,171 | -3,093,823 | -5% |
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Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash increased its emissions the most from 2020 to 2021 – an increase of a staggering 748%! The cryptocurrency is on track to release 1,303,278 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere this year.
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Cardano
Cardano uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain which requires much less energy and processing power than the Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain used by the market leaders. Nonetheless, for the time being, the currency is still seeing a 551% increase in its emissions rate.
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Stellar
The technology used by Stellar is more efficient than PoW or PoS. As a consequence, Stellar produced the least CO2 in 2020 and 2021 in the rating, despite having the highest number of transactions. The increase in Stellar’s CO2 emissions of 189.6% is not nearly as damaging as it might first seem, amounting to 23.99 tons of CO2.
Further Findings
Low energy-intensive coins
| Rank | Cryptocurrency | Energy Used per Transaction (kWh) |
| 1 | Stellar | 0.00003 |
| 2 | IOTA | 0.00011 |
| 3 | Nano | 0.000112 |
| 4 | Ripple | 0.0079 |
| 5 | Chia | 0.023 |
View the full research here: https://forexsuggest.com/global-impact-of-crypto-trading/
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