Global bitcoin power consumption is estimated at around the level of Finland in 2021. Let's double that to be safe. Finland is a country of 5.5m, so let's say b

Global bitcoin power consumption is estimated at around the level of Finland in 2021. Let's double that to be safe. Finland is a country of 5.5m, so let's say bitcoin uses as much energy as 11m people. There's no way 11m additional consumers would have a medium-term effect this strong on a market the size of the EU energy market which contains about 440m people. And to add to that: that's worldwide bitcoin usage, not within EU. Yes, bitcoin is wasteful. No, bitcoin isn't the primary driver of high energy prices in Europe. That's on terrible planning ("let's go renewable, surely we won't hit times where the sun doesn't shine") and bad forecasting ("how much gas could we possibly need this winter?"). Fortunately, the winter is pretty mild (thanks, global warming!) which makes it less of a problem.