Bitcoin Mining Council emerges following meeting with Michael Saylor and Elon Musk

North America’s Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry appears to be moving towards greater environmental sustainability after MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor brokered a successful meeting between Elon Musk and several prominent business leaders. 

Saylor and Musk both revealed Monday that the Bitcoin Mining Council has been established following the high-level talks. The council is made up of several industry leaders, including Argos Blockchain, Blockcap, Galaxy Digital, Hive Blockchain, Hut 8 Mining, Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain. They’ve all agreed to “promote energy usage transparency [and] accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide,” Saylor tweeted Monday.

Yesterday I was pleased to host a meeting between @elonmusk & the leading Bitcoin miners in North America. The miners have agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide. https://t.co/EHgLZ9zvDK

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) May 24, 2021

Saylor also indicated that the new industry group is committed to pursuing broad environmental, social and corporate governance goals concerning Bitcoin mining, as well as educating the marketplace about how the mining process works.

Musk, who was the first to tweet about the discussions, said: “Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.”

Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2021

Bitcoin's price appears to have rallied sharply after the announcement circulated. BTC reached an intraday high of $39,960, building off earlier gains. 

Tesla's decision to stop accepting Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns may have contributed to one of Bitcoin's worst-ever declines. Peak to trough, the digital asset plunged 54%, eventually bottoming at sub-$30,000 before recovering. In the process, Musk was subjected to severe backlash from the cryptocurrency community that he had just recently embraced. 

Although misconceptions about the negative impact of Bitcoin mining on the environment are nothing new, headlines about a Chinese crackdown on crypto miners in light of environmental concerns have weighed on investor sentiment recently. As Cointelegraph recently reported, several Chinese Bitcoin miners are already winding down operations in the country and relocating to more desirable jurisdictions.