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The electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining companies has plunged significantly in the wake of the intensifying crypto winter. Crypto analyst Digiconomist revealed this news in its Energy Consumption Indices for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

According to the BTC index, the electricity consumption of Proof-of-Work (PoW) miners has plunged nearly 36% in under two weeks. Specifically, BTC’s energy use fell from 204.50 TWh on June 11 to 131.68 TWh on June 23. Despite declining by over a third, BTC’s energy usage is equal to that of Argentina.

At the moment, a single BTC transaction currently consumes 1,438.96 kWh. This is equivalent to the energy use of an average US household over 49.32 days.

Moving on, ETH’s energy consumption plunged from 91.45 TWh on June 1 to 47.73 TWh on June 23. The current energy consumption is equivalent to that of Hong Kong. A single ETH consumes enough energy to power an average US household for 4.17 days.

Crypto Market Continues Performing Poorly

From the above data, it is evident that PoW mining demands high amounts of energy. With the crypto market performing poorly, miners are increasingly throwing in the towel, seeing as their rewards fall below the operational costs.

At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $20,893.99 after plummeting from around $31,800 at the start of the month. BTC’s current price represents a 69.63% drop from its November 10 all-time high (ATH) of $68,789.63.

On the other hand, ETH is changing hands at $1,196.81 after falling from $1,960.70 on June 1. The altcoin’s current price denotes a 75.53% plunge from its November 16 ATH of $4,891.70.

According to Alex de Vries, the economist behind Digitconomist, the bear market has taken a toll on the mining industry. He claims miners with weak rigs and those operating in areas with inefficient cooling are going out of business.

Vries added,

For Bitcoin mining equipment that’s a big issue, because those machines cannot be repurposed to do something else. When they’re unprofitable they’re useless machines. You can keep them around hoping the price will recover or sell them for scrap.