Crypto's 2023 Water Use Could Cool 249 Billion Volkswagen Beetles

Cryptocurrency is a weird, bad bubble that’s largely already popped, but some folks just refuse to give up and cash out. Instead, they’re hawking cryptocurrency perfumes to appeal to women, presumably because they asked exactly zero women what they’d want from crypto.

Tesla, Just Like You, Lost a Ton of Money on Bitcoin in 2022

It’s interesting, though, that a major crypto firm would market itself using liquids. The crypto industry is under continual fire for its wasting of natural resources, and chief among those is water — which crypto churns through hundreds of millions of gallons of annually.

Crypto mining used about 591 billion gallons of water in 2023 — a notable uptick from prior years, even when crypto itself was worth more. That’s 2,237,178,364,344 liters — nearly two and a quarter trillion — enough liquid to completely fill the cooling systems on 248,575,373,816 Volkswagen New Beetles. Assuming it’s all distilled, of course.

If you’re curious about larger vehicles, that’s enough water to cool down 139,058,823,529 200-series Land Cruisers if they’ve popped a leak somewhere out in the bush and just need to be limped home for a proper fix, flush, and fill. If we want to talk about our own overdue maintenance, I could flush the coolant on my BMW F800GS 1,355,865,675,360 times. I’m sure I could pull that off in a weekend, if I really worked at it.

Cryptocurrency uses a truly unfathomable amount of water, not to mention everything burned to generate all that electricity it uses. Crypto companies should really avoid using liquids in their advertising, if only to avoid the negative connotations that have already been developed in the minds of consumers. Maybe try something less dumb next time, like closing up shop forever.