Anthony Scaramucci defends Elon Musk's bitcoin holdings amid recent energy-use concerns, says the Tesla CEO has done more than anyone to fight climate change
- Anthony Scaramucci tweeted Friday that Elon Musk's bitcoin investments don't conflict with the Tesla CEO's mission to fight climate change.
- Scaramucci said Musk wouldn't invest in a "dirty asset," and said that bitcoin mining can be powered by renewables.
- His comments come amid concerns bitcoin mining is wasting energy and harming the climate.
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Anthony Scaramucci defended Elon Musk's investments in bitcoin amid recent concerns that mining the coin wastes energy and is harmful to the environment.
In a tweet Friday morning, Scaramucci said that "no living person has done more to protect the planet against climate change," than Musk and the idea that the Tesla CEO would invest in an asset that harmed the environment is "absurd."
Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital launched a bitcoin fund in December and has over a half a billion dollars invested in bitcoin.
Musk's Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in February, which raised eyebrows from investors who see a disconnect between the green objectives of electric vehicles and the energy consumption of bitcoin.
But Scaramucci told his 1 million twitter followers that the future of bitcoin mining is in renewable energy, and Musk sees that.
"Elon Musk sees future 1) renewables replace fossil fuels 2) #bitcoin demonetizes gold, RE, equities & art + becomes dominant store of value," Scaramucci tweeted.
While bitcoin miners argue that a large portion of mining in the US and abroad is done via renewable energy sources like hydropower, wind, and solar, there's no consensus data regarding the percentage of bitcoin mining that's powered by renewable energy.
A recent survey by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance found that 76% of cryptoasset proof of work miners around the globe use renewable energies as part of their energy mix, but the share of renewables in miners' total energy consumption remains at 39%.