Today in Crypto: Climate Activists Target Bitcoin; FTX Europe Eyes UK; MicroStrategy Doubles Down on Bitcoin

Bitcoin will be facing more criticism over its environmental footprint, Bloomberg wrote Tuesday (March 29), and climate action groups have launched a new campaign to pressure the crypto community to change its ways.

Called “Change the Code, Not the Climate,” the groups will pressure the Bitcoin community to change the way it orders transactions.

The community already consumes as much power as Sweden, and the report notes that in five years it could be consuming as much as Japan.

The climate groups include Greenpeace as well as crypto billionaire Chris Larsen.

The campaign plans to take action through buying ads in several publications over the next month.

Michael Brune, who runs the campaign, says the hope is to “compel leadership to agree that this is a problem that needs to be addressed.”

Meanwhile, FTX Europe, which is the new arm of the FTX exchange, is looking to expand in the U.K., according to Coindesk.

Patrick Gruhn, FTX Europe head, said discussions with the FCA were underway.

FTX Europe has a headquarters in Switzerland and another base in Cyprus.

The U.K. is considered a crypto hub by its government, though there could be more regulation coming down.

Finally, MicroStrategy, the software company that has made bitcoin investing an important part of its corporate strategy, is borrowing against its digital asset holdings for the first time to buy more cryptocurrency, Bloomberg wrote.

The company’s MacroStrategy unit got a $205 million three-year term loan from a unit of Silvergate Bank.

The loan is backed by collateral roughly amounting to four times its size, or $820 million.

Michael Saylor, the founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, has long been an advocate for holding crypto instead of cash in corporate treasuries, and the company started buying bitcoin for its balance sheet in August 2020.