The very real consequences of cryptomania.

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Lily Dromali. The Securities and Exchange Commission's recent approval of Spot Bitcoin EDFs means for the first time people can invest in

funds that include Bitcoin, no crypto wallet required.

Demand for the original cryptocurrency is only expected to grow and

Bitcoin mining operators are here for it.

Two years ago I visited one in upstate New York,

stacks of computers burn through tons of power to generate

new bit coins.

Texas is now a preferred hub, and Wood Mackenzie's Ben Hurts-Shargill says the SEC's move will be felt there.

It will send a long-term price signal to these miners to, you know, redouble their efforts and to build

newer and bigger facilities. And Texas, like certain

other states, is really in the crosshairs of multiple types of load growth or

kind of energy demand growth where they're dealing with not only growth from

data centers, conventional data centers, and crypto mines, but EV charging depots and manufacturing

facilities. And so it's a challenge to deal with all of this increase in demand.

Miners have already caused 1.8 billion dollars per year, an increased cost for

consumers in Texas, and that was before these ETS were approved.

And this is going to really lock that in and potentially drive it up to extreme degrees.

So it's clear that demand for Bitcoin, if anybody thought that was going away, that's not happening, at least not in the short term.

I also visited a Bitcoin mining facility in upstate New York in late 2021, early 2022.

I was struck by something you wrote about saying that in 2022

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