One River Digital clients opt for Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Mining
One River Digital, an asset management company that is focused on digital asset management, has said that a large majority of its clients choose to go for its carbon-neutral share class.
The skeptics of bitcoin have long been critical of its damage to the environment as they allege that the mining uses a lot of electricity and this leads to greater usage of coal and other fossil fuels. Mining is mainly done in third world countries due to the cheap power that is available but this is damaging to the environment as the power in these countries is mainly generated through fossil fuels. The criticism got louder when Elon Musk announced that he was no longer interested in investing in Bitcoin (BTC) as it was not environment-friendly. This has led to a slew of initiatives to make bitcoin as carbon neutral as possible.
“Digital Assets are an emerging asset class with unique risks and opportunities,” said Eric Peters, Chief Investment Officer and Founder of One River Asset Management. “We believe that digital assets hold incredible potential for good. To realize that potential, though, it is important to proactively address environmental impacts. Today’s announcement, made possible by our clients, is an important step in the right direction. Their actions will provide a benchmark for institutional investor behavior going forward.”
The company has created an option by which the investors can invest in digital strategies but at the same time, would be able to offset the resulting carbon footprint. They have named this index BTC.X and the company buys tokenized carbon credits, validated on the blockchain, to offset the carbon emissions.
Sebastian Bea, President of One River Digital, was excited by the swift response from clients as they embrace carbon-neutral bitcoin investing. “We believe it is reflective of a broader shift in investor preferences, as transparency mounts across institutional portfolios,” he said. “Every new investment will increasingly be held to account for its carbon footprint. We are excited to be the first institutional digital asset manager to deliver this capability to its clients. We look forward to furthering opportunities as the digital asset ecosystem seeks a 100% carbon-neutral future.”
The focus on the environmental impact of BTC mining is indeed good for the industry in the long run but it remains to be seen whether all these actions taken by the different companies to offset this criticism, are really valid and would bring a change in carbon footprint or whether they are just sales tactics to deflect the criticism for now. The fact is that BTC mining has been going on for a long and it is quite late that this has come into focus, especially when most of the bitcoins are already mined. With China and other governments also cracking down on BTC mining, it is expected to yield good environment-friendly results in the long run.
