Crypto

Crypto mines will have to start reporting their energy use in the US

Published

2 years ago

January 31, 2024

Crypto mines will have to start reporting their energy use in the US

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will begin collecting data on crypto mines’ electricity use, following criticism from environmental advocates over how energy-hungry those operations are.

“We will specifically focus on how the energy demand for cryptocurrency mining is evolving, identify geographic areas of high growth, and quantify the sources of electricity used to meet cryptocurrency mining demand,” Joe DeCarolis, administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA), said in a press release today.

“We will specifically focus on how the energy demand for cryptocurrency mining is evolving.”

The EIA, the statistical agency of the Department of Energy, announced that it is “initiating a provisional survey of electricity consumption information from identified cryptocurrency mining companies” starting next week. The cryptocurrency mining companies will have to comply, per an “emergency collection of data request” the Office of Management and Budget authorized last week.

In 2022, Democratic lawmakers asked the biggest crypto mining companies in the US to disclose their electricity consumption and associated pollution. None of the companies responded with all the data they were asked to provide, and Congress subsequently asked the DOE and EPA to require that crypto companies publicly share the information.

In letters between the agencies and Democratic lawmakers shared exclusively with The Verge last year, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm wrote a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) saying that the EIA has the authority to require crypto operations to report their energy use. Doing so would “require development of a new survey to collect this information,” the letter says. It looks like that’s what’s happening now. According to the letter, the EIA can potentially also require utilities to share information about how much electricity they sell to crypto companies.

A spokesperson for the Blockchain Association didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Crypto

Best Cryptocurrency Stocks To Keep An Eye On

Published

8 hours ago

February 17, 2026

Press Room

Galaxy Digital, Bitfarms, and HIVE Digital Technologies are the three Cryptocurrency stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeat’s stock screener tool. “Cryptocurrency stocks” refers to shares of publicly traded companies that derive significant revenue from, provide services to, or hold substan

Crypto

Steak ’n Shake Says Bitcoin Helps Beef Up Sales | PYMNTS.com

Published

20 hours ago

February 17, 2026

Press Room

Steak ’n Shake Says Bitcoin Helps Beef Up Sales | PYMNTS.com

Fast food chain Steak ’n Shake is crediting cryptocurrency for a boost in sales.

“Nine months ago today, Steak n Shake launched its burger-to-Bitcoin transformation when we started accepting bitcoin payments,” the company wrote in a post on X Monday (Feb. 17). “Our same-store sales have risen dramatically ever since.”

Under this system, the post added, bitcoin payments for Steak ’n Shake burgers are placed in a reserve fund used for “Bitcoin bonus pay” for its workers.

The news was flagged in a report by Coindesk, which noted that Steak ’n Shake had earlier this year announced it had added $10 million worth of bitcoin to its corporate treasury, as part of a “self-reinforcing” cycle in which diners pay in bitcoin, sales increase, and crypto revenue is added to the reserve.

The company began accepting bitcoin payments in May of 2025 and initially enjoyed a 10% increase in sales, the report added. Dan Edwards, the company’s chief operating officer, has said the chain saves around 50% when customers pay with crypto.

Coindesk said that the chain in October introduced a bitcoin-themed burger to its menu, donating part of each Bitcoin Meal to open-source bitcoin development.

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The program is an example of the growing use of cryptocurrency as a payment method for everyday purchases.

“The range of goods and services purchasable with cryptocurrency has expanded far beyond the early days of novelty transactions,” PYMNTS wrote last week.

“Today, consumers can use digital assets to book travel, purchase consumer electronics, pay for cloud services, acquire luxury goods, and even settle recurring bills through intermediaries that convert crypto into local currency at the point of sale.”

However, the most important shift might not involve consumers making the decision to pay with crypto, but might come from stablecoin cards that let users hold value outside banks while spending within the card ecosystem.

“The competition around these products is less about retail payments themselves and more about which institutions will control the monetary layer beneath them, as they, in effect, represent a structural decoupling of deposit capture from payment activity,” PYMNTS added.

This situation has placed card networks like Visa and Mastercard, stablecoin issuers such as Circle and Paxos, and FinTechs, exchanges and wallets in a “three-sided race.”

Card companies are scrambling to weave stablecoins into their rails “before disintermediation risk materializes,” the report said, while the stablecoin issuers are seeking “to become the monetary layer those networks must carry.”

FinTechs, exchanges and wallets, meanwhile, are battling for customer ownership and program issuance.

Crypto

Three people arrested for siphoning cryptocurrency worth Rs 19 crore from Hyderabad trader | Hyderabad News – The Times of India

Published

1 day ago

February 16, 2026

Press Room

Hyderabad: Cybercrime police arrested three people for allegedly siphoning off cryptocurrency worth over Rs 19 crore from a city-based crypto trader, through a phishing website.Police said that two of the accused — Srikanth Bairoju from Shamshabad and Sushim Sripati Gaikwad from Pune — posed as crypto buyers and approached the victim, a 44-year-old from Kalyan Nagar in Madhura Nagar, in the last week of Jan. They convinced him to log on to a website, Trontag.org, under the pretext of completing KYC verification for his crypto wallet.“Once the victim complied with the process, a malicious smart contract got triggered allowing cryptocurrency transfer from his wallet to that of the fraudsters. Subsequently, the victim transferred 2,104,089 USDT (worth over Rs 19 crore approx.) from his wallet to that of the accused,” said S Naresh, cybercrime inspector.The victim realised that he was cheated when the fraudsters went incommunicado after the transfer was complete. Following a complaint, police registered a case on Feb 3 under relevant sections of the BNS and the IT Act, and launched a probe.They traced the digital footprints of the gang that led them to the main accused. Police arrested Bairoju and Gaikwad from Hyderabad and Pune respectively, on Feb 15. A third accused, Lucky Choudhary, who was the duo’s associate and allegedly created the fraudulent website, was arrested from Jaipur. Police seized four mobile phones and two laptops, used in the fraud, from the accused.“A few more accused involved in the crime are on the run. Our team has launched a manhunt to nab them. We are also contacting the cryptocurrency companies linked to the fraud to try and recover the defrauded amount,” said V Aravind Babu, DCP, cybercrime. Police, meanwhile, advised crypto traders to avoid unverified links, enable two-factor authentication and independently confirm KYC requirements with official platforms.