The Spanish Prosecution office says it is investigating Arbistar for allegedly running a bitcoin trading scam with preliminary findings suggesting $1 billion in investors’ funds cannot be accounted for. The disappearance of investor funds has affected 32,000 families that are failing to access their savings that are invested with Arbistar, a suspected pyramid scheme masquerading as a bitcoin trading platform.
Bitcoin has had a strong start to the decade, adding over 40% to its price so far this year—and taking its market capitalization to around $200 billion.
In the past, cryptocurrency mining operations, especially that of Bitcoin, have gotten a lot of flack for consuming jaw-dropping amounts of energy. Bitcoin alone consumes more energy each year than the entire country of Switzerland.