King James and his foundation are partnering with Crypto.com to “support educational and workforce development opportunities focused on Web3.”
LeBron James is the most recent athlete to embrace cryptocurrency. Crypto.com is collaborating with the Lakers star and his LeBron James Family Foundation to “support educational and workforce development opportunities focused on Web3.”
Through this collaboration, Web3 will be accessible to students and families associated with the four-time NBA champion’s “I PROMISE” program, giving them access to instructional materials and tools.
“Blockchain technology is revolutionizing our economy, sports and entertainment, the art world, and how we engage with one another. I want to ensure that communities like the one I come from are not left behind,” James said in a statement.
For the next 20 years, Crypto.com will be the title sponsor of the Staples Center, a venue that hosts LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. To secure this right, the company spent over $700 million. This move is part of Crypto.com’s aggressive brand promotion campaign throughout the world.
Crypto.com has also invested over $100 million in a campaign featuring Matt Damon as the face of its platform. Since the announcement of the partnership in October 2022, the price of Bitcoin has dropped from over $60,000 to roughly $37,000.
James joins a growing list of celebrities, including Tom Brady, Odell Beckham Jr., and Steph Curry, who have all become involved in the cryptocurrency space.
Leading Bitcoin Miners Are Urged by US Lawmakers to Describe Energy Use and Climate Effect
In response to growing concerns about the environmental impact of the cryptocurrency industry, Bloomberg, a group of Democratic lawmakers led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, is requesting information about electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from six of the largest Bitcoin miners in the world.
The eight lawmakers wrote letters requesting information from crypto-mining companies, such as Riot Blockchain Inc. and Marathon Digital Holdings Inc., regarding their facilities’ annual electricity consumption, growth strategies, and effect on local power prices.
The power consumption of the cryptocurrency industry has come under increasing criticism, with some even claiming it to be comparable to that of the entire country of Argentina. The letters heighten the stakes in Warren’s campaign to rein in inefficient Bitcoin operations, following her request to Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc., which uses a natural gas plant to power its upstate New York facility, last month. The letters also coincide with the shockwave that reverberated throughout the industry after Bitcoin’s roughly 50% decline.
“Given the extraordinarily high energy usage and carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining, mining operations raise concerns about their impacts on the global environment, local ecosystems, and consumer electricity costs,” wrote Senator Warren and seven other U.S. lawmakers, including Representative Katie Porter and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
Stronghold Digital Mining Inc., Bitfury Group Ltd., Bitdeer Technologies Holding Co., and Bit Digital Inc. also received letters. These crypto-mining companies operate not only in the United States, but also in Norway, Russia, Japan, and Kazakhstan.
Brian Brooks, the CEO of BitFury, was asked in a letter to elaborate on the company’s electricity requirements and the impact of their activities on the climate.
“What is your projected electricity consumption for crypto-mining across all of your U.S. facilities combined over the next five years? What are your projected associated carbon emissions for that mining?” the lawmakers asked.
During a hearing this month before a U.S. House subcommittee, Brooks defended the energy consumption of the industry.
Mining is the process of using powerful computers to solve mathematical problems and arrange transactions on the blockchain. The fastest miners are rewarded with Bitcoin. The largest miners run massively energy-intensive operations, with tens of thousands of computers running in warehouses that resemble data centers.
“The extraordinarily high energy usage and carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining could undermine our hard work to tackle the climate crisis—not to mention the harmful impacts crypto-mining has on local environments and electricity prices,” Senator Warren explained in a statement.
In emails, representatives of Bit Digital, Riot, Stronghold, and Marathon said they were happy to speak with the lawmakers. Stronghold claimed that its facilities were assisting in the resolution of an environmental issue that could stabilize the electrical grid rather than put undue strain on it. Stronghold uses coal refuse to generate power and mine Bitcoin. Meanwhile, requests for comments were not answered by BitDeer or Bitfury.
The letters are being sent at a critical juncture for Bitcoin miners, following the token’s 50% decline from its peak in November 2021. While many mining operations profited handsomely from the surge in Bitcoin over the past year, those with less efficient operations may suffer from the downturn.
Senators Maggie Hassan and Edward J. Markey, as well as Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Jared Huffman, also signed the aforementioned letters.
