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Crypto asset meltdown prompts calls for regulation

May 13, 2022
The Securities and Exchange Commission isn't the only agency that could do it.
After a tumultuous week for cryptocurrency, the risk to investors is stirring concern.
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While a 401(k) that includes cryptocurrency may pique the interest of younger investors, the volatility of bitcoin worries some financial advisors.
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What are stablecoins, and why are regulators worried about them?

Apr 18, 2022
The cryptocurrencies — pegged to "real" currencies that aren't supposed to fluctuate in value — are the bedrock of the crypto economy.
Stablecoins are involved in roughly 80% of cryptocurrency trading and lending transactions and aren't supposed to fluctuate in value. But the Treasury Department is concerned about the potential for a stablecoin run.
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Crypto for kids?

Apr 14, 2022
A conversation with Rebecca Jennings of Vox on the growing new industry that teaches children about cryptocurrency, NFTs and Web3.
Internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings says a growing cohort of camps, startups and media aim to prepare children for the future of the internet. What lessons are the kids learning?
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Crypto miners use natural gas "stranded" in wells to power energy-hungry rigs

Mar 25, 2022
Usually the gas is burned off at the well. Environmentalists say using it for mining incentivizes more drilling.
If natural gas from oil wells can't be used or sold, it's sometimes flared, as above, or vented into the air. Some cryptocurrency miners see it as a potential energy source.
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Crypto miners came to upstate New York for cheap energy. Some regret letting them come.

Mar 11, 2022
The miners have blown through one town's allocation of cheap power, while another has put a moratorium on new mining operations.
Coinmint is using an old aluminum smelting plant as a cryptocurrency mining facility. The plant comes with its own electrical substation with direct hookups to the grid.
Lily Jamali/Marketplace

Should you put cryptocurrency in your retirement account?

Marketplace Senior Economics Contributor Chris Farrell says think twice. He calls the crypto ecosystem "volatile" and "opaque."
A scene from the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a crypto-currency conference held on June 04, 2021 in Miami, Florida.
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For public good, not for profit.

Cryptocurrencies' collapse follows 2017 run, regulation threats

Nov 20, 2018
Down from its 1,400 percent rise in 2017, bitcoin is now trading at less than $5,000 — a sharp decline for what some once hoped was a new and promising asset that could excite institutional investors. Instead, many traders were just trying to make a quick buck. Click the audio player above to hear the […]
In this photo illustration a visual representation of the digital currency Bitcoin sinks into water. 
Photo Illustration by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images