From solar-powered mining farms to groups of ex-classmates: How people are capitalising on the crypto craze

Cryptocurrency has been around for more than a decade, and it has never been more difficult to ignore.

In the past month the market value of cryptocurrencies has plummeted, wiping out an estimated $1.3 trillion since it peaked on 12 May.

It was on that day that Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the electric vehicle company would no longer accept Bitcoin because of the impact that its mining has on the environment.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance estimated that the Bitcoin industry alone has an equivalent annual power consumption as a country the size of Malaysia.

Now in the US a Montana cryptocurrency miner wants to buy a proposed 300 megawatt, 1,600-acre solar farm proposed for a private ranch near Butte.

Atlas Power owner Kevin Washington wants to build eight more buildings of computer servers packed full of thousands of Graphic Processing Unites to mine digital currency.

And he wants the $250m Basin Creek Solar Project and its 700,000 solar panels to help power it.

“Now, the only barrier for data centres like this is power, and I believe green energy is the answer,” Mr Washington has said.

If all the necessary permits are achieved Mr Washington plans to buy the solar project, which would become one of the top 10 solar generation facilities in the US.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, neighbours are concerned about the impact on the land, including John and Sandi Roesti who live next to the site.

“If that goes in we’re going to see a sea of black,” Ms Roesti told The Montana Standard.

“As for solar panels, we have them on our motorhome. We're all for that, but not 1,600 beautiful acres.”

And her husband rejected claims that the development will bring more jobs into the community.

“The thing is, it’s not going to do Butte any good,” said Mr Roesti.

“They're pushing that they'll bring all kinds of jobs in here, but it won't. Except in the very beginning when you put them all in. And then after that, there's nothing.

“The people's property values are going to go way down out here.”

Land owner John McDermott has defended the scheme, which would be built on his property.

“It's sure better than a housing development for me. Less impact, less people. It's clean energy. It's kind of the future. It just made sense to go that direction,” he told the newspaper.

Two public meetings on the project have been held this month, and project spokesperson Matt Vincent says they have helped people understand its goals.

“I don't think there was anybody coming in jumping for joy wanting to see how they could get on board, but we certainly had a lot of people leave with that sort of sentiment,” said Mr Vincent.

Meanwhile former high school classmates have become some of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency investors with a portfolio, despite the crash, worth billions of dollars.

Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, who are both former traders for Credit Suisse Group AG, started Three Arrows Capital from their kitchen table in 2012.

And Mr Davies, 34, says he is not worried by the recent sell-off.

“Bitcoin’s down 30% off the highs, it’s really not down very much. I don’t see anyone really being that spooked,” he told Bloomberg.

The pair have recommended on social media that crypto billionaires do not talk publicly about their fortunes.

But a filing in January revealed that their firm owns a 5.6 per cent stake in the $22bn Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Their Singapore-based company’s largest crypto holding is Ethereum, which they say they are using to outperform Bitcoin.

“What’s the best way to beat Bitcoin right now? Well it’s just to own Ethereum. The ultimate goal of my book is to outperform Bitcoin.”

And he said he is not worried about Mr Musk’s long-term impact on the crypto space.

“The thing about outsized voices is they usually don’t last very long if they’re used too much,”he added.

“If he were to tweet every single day, by the end of the year he would have no price impact.”