--- title: Remember when bitcoin was killing the planet? | daily.dev description: Bitcoin's electricity use, once the target of relentless media outrage, has plateaued at roughly 138TWh a year, or about 0.5% of global electricity, thanks to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Remember when bitcoin was killing the planet? | daily.dev og:description: Bitcoin's electricity use, once the target of relentless media outrage, has plateaued at roughly 138TWh a year, or about 0.5% of global electricity, thanks to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/iVdmOe9cs.png og:image:alt: Remember when bitcoin was killing the planet? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Remember when bitcoin was killing the planet? **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 7 min read · 18 upvotes · 8 comments ## Summary Bitcoin's electricity use, once the target of relentless media outrage, has plateaued at roughly 138TWh a year, or about 0.5% of global electricity, thanks to the protocol's built-in difficulty adjustment that caps how much miners can profitably spend. AI, by contrast, has only just drawn level with bitcoin's energy draw but faces no such ceiling: the IEA projects AI could consume 330-470TWh by 2030, two to three times bitcoin's flat usage. The piece also flips the clean-energy narrative, noting bitcoin mining now runs on 43-65% renewables (depending on the source) versus roughly 27% for data centres overall, because miners chase the cheapest power wherever it is stranded. It further covers the 'great defection' of miners toward renting power to AI companies after the 2024 halving and rising hashrate squeezed mining profitability, and explains why bitcoin's issuance schedule remains unaffected even as hashrate has fallen about 20% from its October 2025 peak. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much electricity does the bitcoin network use compared to AI data centres? Bitcoin uses about 138TWh a year, roughly 0.5% of global electricity, a figure that has barely moved in years due to the network's built-in mining difficulty adjustment. AI has only just drawn level, reaching an estimated 155TWh globally, but AI's usage is not capped and the International Energy Agency projects it could reach 330-470TWh by 2030, two to three times bitcoin's flat consumption. _Anyone weighing bitcoin's footprint against AI's growing power appetite can track the numbers as they shift on daily.dev._ ### What percentage of bitcoin mining energy comes from renewable sources? Bitcoin mining runs at roughly 43% renewables, or 52% including nuclear, according to Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance data, while bitcoin author Steven Boykey Sidley pegs it as high as 65% green. That compares favorably to data centres overall, which draw only about 27% renewables and 15% nuclear, with close to 60% still coming from fossil fuels. _Developers debating crypto's climate impact can follow how these renewable figures evolve on daily.dev._ ### Why are bitcoin miners switching to powering AI data centres instead of mining? After the April 2024 halving cut the block reward to 3.125 bitcoin, mining revenue per block collapsed just as computing power climbed to a record near 1,160 exahashes per second in October 2025, squeezing profitability. Miners realized their scarcest asset, powered and grid-connected land, was worth more renting to AI companies for a fixed fee than mining coins, driving what industry observers call the great defection. _Those tracking crypto mining economics versus AI infrastructure demand can follow the shift on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@yaireo** · 2 upvotes > in 2021 **@byteoutlaw** · 0 upvotes > Yeah hahaha 🤣 forgot. > > Laughing inside! **@alvelinov** · 0 upvotes > Nothing has changed since then and it's still an energy sink. The comparison with AI is lazy. A bigger wrong doesn't make the smaller one any less wrong ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How much energy do data centers and artificial intelligence use?](https://daily.dev/posts/how-much-energy-do-data-centers-and-artificial-intelligence-use--n18jjn9mp) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Data centers expected to use 4x more electricity by 2035](https://daily.dev/posts/data-centers-expected-to-use-4x-more-electricity-by-2035-j2q6reqsj) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#bitcoin](https://daily.dev/tags/bitcoin) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Remember when bitcoin was killing the planet?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs"},"datePublished":"2026-09-21T12:03:19.001Z","dateModified":"2026-09-21T12:03:48.352Z","description":"Bitcoin's electricity use, once the target of relentless media outrage, has plateaued at roughly 138TWh a year, or about 0.5% of global electricity, thanks to...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/35bf7ba3cbabcc8ef99b2a5e0be2399c?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/35bf7ba3cbabcc8ef99b2a5e0be2399c?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCentral","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCentral","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RsqLDZrL--/f_auto/v1717745297/logos/techcentral","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},"commentCount":8,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":18},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}],"keywords":"ai,bitcoin","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCentral","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Remember when bitcoin was killing the planet?"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"in 2021","datePublished":"2026-09-21T13:28:05.739Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/iVdmOe9cs#c-TRBjEdYit","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yair Even Or","url":"https://daily.dev/yaireo","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/845031?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Yeah hahaha 🤣 forgot.\nLaughing inside!","datePublished":"2026-09-21T17:47:34.228Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/iVdmOe9cs#c-AyXKHzSod","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob B. Bonde","url":"https://daily.dev/byteoutlaw","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--veTChHK7--/f_auto/v1733220070/avatars/avatar_5cQvIZKr5tDFDotVDjulg"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Nothing has changed since then and it’s still an energy sink. The comparison with AI is lazy. A bigger wrong doesn’t make the smaller one any less wrong","datePublished":"2026-09-25T06:13:43.829Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/iVdmOe9cs#c-iOJWs3BcD","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex","url":"https://daily.dev/alvelinov","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---IBHXW6K--/f_auto/v1739260309/avatars/avatar_qeKHgWVZCS8FDvZfKwPnr"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/remember-when-bitcoin-was-killing-the-planet--ivdmoe9cs#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much electricity does the bitcoin network use compared to AI data centres?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Bitcoin uses about 138TWh a year, roughly 0.5% of global electricity, a figure that has barely moved in years due to the network's built-in mining difficulty adjustment. AI has only just drawn level, reaching an estimated 155TWh globally, but AI's usage is not capped and the International Energy Agency projects it could reach 330-470TWh by 2030, two to three times bitcoin's flat consumption. Anyone weighing bitcoin's footprint against AI's growing power appetite can track the numbers as they shift on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What percentage of bitcoin mining energy comes from renewable sources?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Bitcoin mining runs at roughly 43% renewables, or 52% including nuclear, according to Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance data, while bitcoin author Steven Boykey Sidley pegs it as high as 65% green. That compares favorably to data centres overall, which draw only about 27% renewables and 15% nuclear, with close to 60% still coming from fossil fuels. Developers debating crypto's climate impact can follow how these renewable figures evolve on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why are bitcoin miners switching to powering AI data centres instead of mining?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"After the April 2024 halving cut the block reward to 3.125 bitcoin, mining revenue per block collapsed just as computing power climbed to a record near 1,160 exahashes per second in October 2025, squeezing profitability. Miners realized their scarcest asset, powered and grid-connected land, was worth more renting to AI companies for a fixed fee than mining coins, driving what industry observers call the great defection. Those tracking crypto mining economics versus AI infrastructure demand can follow the shift on daily.dev."}}]} ```