GHG Emissions  -  July 7, 2021

ETC Group Launches Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Mining Operation

ETC Group announced July 2 that its Bitcoin ETP will one day be carbon neutral through a selection of carbon credits to offset the mining and transaction activities associated with the crypto ETP.

The mining of BTCetc - ETC Group Physical Bitcoin (BTCE) will be offset by high-quality credits that support climate and conservation projects around the world, including carbon sequestration and renewable energy generation. The credits will offset all of ETC Group’s bitcoin-related Scope 3 emissions since the launch of BTCE and will continue to purchase such offsets on a quarterly basis.

BTCE is Europe’s most heavily traded physically-backed Bitcoin ETP. It was previously approved by German regulator BaFin and was listed on Germany’s Deutsche Börse XETRA exchange in June 2020.

“Companies benefiting from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are right to take meaningful steps to address climate concerns,” Bradley Duke, CEO and co-founder of ETC Group, said in a statement. “We are pleased to see that bitcoin miners are increasingly sourcing renewable electricity, but we at ETC Group feel it’s important to do more and act now. That’s why we have launched our initiative to calculate our bitcoin product’s carbon footprint, and offset it with high quality projects curated and monitored by some of the world’s most respected climate action companies.”

With this announcement, ETC Group is also joining the Crypto Climate Accord, which is committed to lowering the carbon emissions from the crypto sector to net-zero by 2040.