A cryptocurrency is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network. Individual coin ownership records are stored in digital ledgers, which are computerized databases using strong cryptography (encryption) to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership. Cryptocurrency has the capability to provide us with a decentralized, transparent, peer-to-peer and global form of currency untethered from the biased hands of governments or banks and always accessible right at our fingertips. This was the original intention behind cryptocurrency and a big reason why it remains alluring. Unfortunately, because it is corruptible through manipulation and monopolization, cryptocurrency is proving to be very wasteful of our limited resources.
The total energy used to mine for one Bitcoin, a singular type of cryptocurrency, equals what an average household uses in 90 years! It is estimated that at least 150 terawatt hours of electricity were used to mine Bitcoin in 2025. An average family household uses around 10,000 kilowatt hours per year, while mining just one bitcoin averages out to about 900,000 kilowatt hours.
The amount of energy used to mine for a type of cryptocurrency is highly dependent on the current and projected value of that cryptocurrency. If one Bitcoin is roughly equal to $70,000, then data miners are willing to spend a very large portion of that on electricity to try to solve the blocks’ algorithm and win the newly minted bitcoins. To boot, a large incentive for some cryptomining ventures is that industrial and commercial energy consumers are charged significantly lower rates per kilowatt-hour than residential users.
How Is Cryptocurrency Affecting Pennsylvania?
Cryptocurrency mining efforts happening in PA are linked to data centers, coal, and oil and gas well pads.
Investors are pursuing data center developments in Southwestern Pennsylvania, including the proposed Project Hummingbird at the former Robena Mine site in Greene County and the marketing of the 1,500-acre Zediker Station property in Washington County. Also, in nearby Indiana County, the old Homer City coal-fired power plant is being converted into a natural gas power plant designed to deliver power to a massive data center campus. Numerous other data centers have been proposed or are in consideration throughout PA.
Cryptocurrency needs data centers to process transactions and to store blockchain, which is essentially a receipt for all cryptocurrency transactions and newly created coins. Data Centers are also good containers for housing and utilizing cryptocurrency mining equipment on site. The same data centers that are directly causing PA energy and water rates to go through the roof could be used by billionaires to get richer off Bitcoin while the state subsidizes their energy costs.
A company named Stronghold Digital Mining (who was acquired by Bitfarms in March of 2025) bought two stranded power plants in PA and runs Bitcoin mining operations out of them. One of the power-plants in Venango County that is owned by Bitfarms burns waste coal as its power source and has been subsidized tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money because they claim they are cleaning up abandoned waste coal piles. However, it turns out that they aren’t actually making anything better at all and burning coal waste just creates tons of coal ash… So much coal ash was being created onsite that it was illegally overflowing their temporary holding area and piling up into a massive, uncontainable mountain. The company was fined a whopping $28,000, a miniscule amount for such a large company.
In Northwest PA, it was reported that older natural gas wells that lack pipeline infrastructure were being kicked back on to fuel on-site cryptocurrency mining equipment. Diversified Energy, which owns and operates many wells in southwestern PA, was caught illegally abandoning some of these crypto-mining well pads in the Northwest without any notice to regulators. Some speculate that these temporary cryptomining operations could be done to skirt well plugging operations, which can come at a substantial cost to the company. Communities that house these operations do not benefit financially from them and can experience health risks from living nearby. Beware and look out for cryptomining equipment on well pads around you and make sure that whoever is operating the equipment is legally permitted to do so.
How Much Money is in Crypto? What are the Risks?
The cryptocurrency market is volatile, risky, and potentially a massive economic bubble that could eventually burst.
In just the last 5 years, the price of Bitcoin has bounced around like a pinball with a low of roughly $16,000 /per coin in 2023 to a high of $122,000 /per coin in 2025, with many peaks and valleys in between. On January 14, 2026 1 bitcoin was worth $96,000. As of February 11, 2026 1 bitcoin is currently worth $67,000. This massive drop in less than a month shows the obvious volatility of this commodity.
Above is a screenshot from March 30, 2026 showing the top 15 highest-valued cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is by far the highest valued form, with a Market-Cap (Market-Cap = price of 1 coin multiplied by all coins in circulation) at roughly $1.9 trillion. Ethereum comes in second with a Market-Cap of $384 billion. Currently, there are 68 forms of cryptocurrency that have a market cap above $1 billion and there are millions of other forms valued lower. Some estimates show that there have been nearly 7 million forms of cryptocurrency created. However, nearly 3.7 million of those are inactive or discontinued for varying reasons such as developers abandoning the project, low volume of coin trading due to lack of traction or notoriety, and–as one may imagine in a money market that is, for the most part, highly unregulated–scams. Embezzlement, money laundering, and theft have become infamously entwined with cryptocurrency. “Pump and dump” investment schemes are increasingly a concern: This is when money and influence are used by a select few to artificially “pump” up the value of a form of cryptocurrency, only to later “dump” it suddenly, selling all their shares at once. This effectively crashes the price of the coin. The select few then cash out while the rest of the people who bought in are cheated out of their investments.
Cryptocurrency is a Zero-Sum Game
While millionaires and billionaires use massive amounts of energy for crypto mining for their personal gain, people in our communities go hungry or cannot earn a living wage. This reality is neither sustainable nor is it just. These cryptocurrency practices allow people who are already wealthy to generate even more personal wealth while we pay higher utility bills and have our land and environment negatively impacted. Cryptocurrency was made to solve inequities and major flaws in the money world, but unfortunately, it has become a tool to do exactly the opposite. Bitcoin, and all cryptocurrencies at this rate, is a zero-sum game because rich people get richer off poor people getting poorer. Without a wide-scale change to energy-use policies and addressing other major flaws, this cryptocurrency bubble is going to burst.