Bitcoin’s energy consumption has been in the limelight for a long time. Its energy-hogging proof-of-work protocol has come under scrutiny even from proponents of cryptocurrency such as Elon Musk. In recent years legislation began to be passed to ban forms of Bitcoin mining, most recently in New York.
That has allowed many “green cryptocurrencies” to emerge and take centre stage. Most green cryptos follow a proof-of-stake protocol and have proven to be as valuable – if not more so – as Bitcoin. They take an environmentally conscious approach and work towards increasing the crypto adoption rate. In this guide, we list and review the greenest cryptocurrencies to invest in this year. Read on as we review the best features of various green cryptos and how they could influence the cryptosphere for years to come.
10+ Greenest Cryptos to Invest in 2024 – Overview
The greenest cryptos are both eco-friendly cryptocurrencies and those whose developers have made a conscious decision to implement technologies that help fight climate change:
- Chia (XCH) – A green crypto focusing on low energy consumption
- Ethereum (ETH) – The largest altcoin that has recently adopted the POS consensus mechanism
- Polygon (MATIC) – One of the earliest green cryptos to emerge
- Algorand (ALGO) – Blockchain that buys carbon credits regularly
- Stellar (XLM) – A decentralized payments network with a focus on low energy consumption
- Nano – A crypto providing a sustainable solution to money
- Bitgreen – Aims to be a greener Bitcoin
- Solana – Highly scalable green cryptocurrency
- Celo (CELO) – Blockchain hosting eco-friendly dApps
These sustainable crypto assets are gaining the attention of the crypto crowd and environmentalists alike – ones who once rallied against blockchain technology.
Greenest Cryptocurrency of 2024 – Complete Reviews
Much of the newer crypto crowd and the old guards are now looking at sustainable cryptocurrencies as a viable investment. And their popularity goes far beyond being eco-friendly and consuming less energy – government regulations are also getting stringent about these assets.
These bodies were the first ones to question whether cryptocurrencies could harm the environment. It soon permeated the entire crypto space leading to the recent inclination towards greener crypto investments. With that in mind, here are the greenest cryptos to invest in 2024.
Chia (XCH): A Green Crypto focusing on low energy consumption
Chia is another cryptocurrency that has made all the greenways in the greenest crypto space. It follows an eco-friendly consensus mechanism which is not necessarily Proof-of-Stake. It is Proof of Spacetime, designed to be sustainable and energy efficient from the get-go.
The root of this consensus approach comes from how this cryptocurrency is stored. Instead of focusing on mining, the chia blockchain is stored in the hard drives of those connected to the network. Basically, users reserve 100 GB “plots” on their hard drives, filling them with hashes. On the creation of the new block, the new hash gets compared to the hashes that are already on this blog. Then the block with the hash that matches the new block wins and earns rewards in the form of XCH tokens.
This unique approach to storage has made Chia one of the most energy-efficient cryptocurrencies, as it only consumes 0.16% of Bitcoin’s energy consumption. You can take a peek at the project’s official whitepaper to learn more about how this cryptocurrency is trying to make the world better and greener.
Overall, our experts like the unique consensus mechanism of this project and can’t wait to see what it delivers. Keep an eye on this one if you have the same mindset.
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Ethereum (ETH): Oldest coin that has recently adopted POS consensus mechanism
The road to becoming green crypto has been long for Ethereum. When Ethereum announced the shift to Proof of Stake at the beginning of 2024, the crowd was divided. Some thought it was the betrayal of the old blockchain and would take away the earnings many. However, most were bullish about this transition as they had been waiting for it to happen for so long.
The road to the Merge, however, was anything but a straight line. From broken launches to bugs to other accidents, nothing was going as planned for Ethereum when it first started on this green path. And the impact on the market was bad. However, the ETH devs still persevered and, in September 2024, made a complete shift to the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism.
This “radical” upgrade has reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by 99.95%, leading to fewer C02 emissions. It is one of the oldest cryptos that has now gone green. And since the NFTs are back in action after the bear market slump, we have more than a few reasons to be excited about this cryptocurrency.
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Polygon (MATIC): One of the earliest green cryptos to emerge
Polygon is one of the earliest cryptocurrencies that took the green approach. Old Ethereum’s high energy consumption veered Polygon (MATIC) into a new direction, making it not only one of the greenest cryptos of 2024 but also future-proof.
It follows along the same lines as other green crypto assets. It also has a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism in which the validators only consume 0.00079 TWh of annual electricity. Compared to Bitcoin, which consumes a whopping 34 to 40 Terra Watt Hour, we can assume why green cryptocurrency enthusiasts have favored Polygon.
While Polygon has been green crypto since its inception, it only took the stands towards addressing it in 2024 with its “Green Manifesto”. Dubbing it “A Smart Contract with Planet Earth”, Polygon declared that it would be going carbon-negative in 2024. It meant all the NFTs minted and the DeFi trade conducted on the platform had their environmental impact offset.
With that aim, Polygon developers launched $20 million for this purpose. Polygon plans to move forward with this goal by buying Carbon credits and retiring them. But Polygon is not alone in this. Making environmentally conscious decisions must be a group effort. That is why Polygon has taken steps to partner with other industries to help them offset their carbon footprint.
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Algorand (ALGO): Blockchain that Buys Carbon Credits Regularly
Algorand is one of the greenest cryptos to come out this year, with a peer-reviewed blockchain to back it up. Silvio Micali, a Turing Award-winning professor, designed it to solve the blockchain dilemma while ensuring that this cryptocurrency stays green.
The official website reads it as the most powerful and sustainable blockchain – the first to achieve scalability, decentralization, and security without compromising sustainability.
Algorand has been one of the most favored blockchains for dApp developers because of its multiple-language support. Taking an inclusive approach, Algorand supports Python, Go, Java, and JavaScript. Doing so has removed barriers that stopped many from adopting blockchain technology.
Algorand emphasizes sustainability leadership. It is far more energy efficient than most blockchains currently available in the market and is going a step further to offsetting its small carbon footprint by partnering with ClimateTrade.
Besides its ecologically-friendly nature, Algorand is also known for its robust dapp tutorial. The guides are easy to understand for any programmer diving into decentralization application development for the first time. Another reason to be bullish about Algorand is its recent Protocol upgrade which is set to increase the transaction speeds by 5x and decrease the round times to less than four seconds.
Overall, Algorand is great green crypto that focuses on ecological balance while not compromising the quality of the blockchain tech. Taking a green-crypto mining stand, this transparent and scalable cryptocurrency is one that you must always watch out for.
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Stellar (XLM): A decentralized payments network with a focus on low energy consumption
Now we begin the final five green cryptos of this crypto. Stellar is a decentralized payments platform that aims to streamline money transfers and cross-border payments and make them accessible to everyone.
Founded by one of the oldest Ripple team members, Stellar Lumens have received backing from Stripe, an Irish-American financial services software company and one of the biggest payment solutions providers in the world. Stellar’s unique architecture allows it to process any payment within five seconds at an extremely low fee.
Stellar Lumens follows the “Proof-of-Agreement” consensus mechanism, leading it to consume roughly 216,435-kilowatt hours per year. In order to offset this amount, In order to offset the carbon footprint it has obtained since 2015, Stellar Development Foundation has implemented a new method to measure the environmental impact of blockchain technology.
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Nano: A crypto providing a sustainable solution to money
Nano is an eco-friendly mobile payment solution that doesn’t rely on mining, printing, or minting. This feeless digital currency can be used for national and international payment and is set to revolutionize how payment systems work within the blockchain.
“Digital money shouldn’t cost the Earth” – is the philosophy Nano has embraced and thus uses a uses unique voting system to operate, known as Open Representative Consensus Mechanism. Under this system, there is no mining requirement, and the crypto asset consumes less energy.
Originally launched in 2014 under the name RaiBlocks, Nano has a DAG (Direct-acyclic Graph) architecture. It allows Nano to have a small infrastructural footprint, with only a few hundred machines needed to power the network. The energy usage of a single nano transaction is nearly 0.11 KWH, which far surpasses many others on this list.
Bitgreen: Aims to be a Greener Bitcoin
You can think of Bitgreen as crypto with an environmentally conscious spin on Bitcoin. The official website reads that Bitgreen aims to combine blockchain technology with green innovation to drive capital toward sustainability initiatives.
Open and permissionless, Bitgreen is a blockchain designed for NGOs and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Green). When it comes to crypto dedicated to the betterment of the world, Bitgreen is to be counted as one of them.
The main aim of Bitgreen crypto is to raise $1 trillion within the next ten years to fund the world’s best sustainability projects. Bitgreen also aims to transparently purchase, create and finance carbon credits and send the benefits to non-governmental organizations focusing on environmental sustainability. Bitgreen is one of the lesser-known cryptos on this list but has fundamentals that focus on ecological balance, which many crypto players can appreciate during the current ecosystem.
Solana: Highly Scalable Green Cryptocurrency
Solana is a highly scalable cryptocurrency known for its unique Proof-of-History algorithm consensus mechanism. While similar to Proof of Stake in many ways, it is much faster and capable of reaching 50,000 TPS, with the average transaction cost being $0.00025.
Solana was originally envisioned as another Ethereum-killer, much like Cardano. However, it has carved its niche within the NFT space. That said, it is Solana’s energy consumption that has gotten the most attention from the crypto space. One Solana transaction takes 3,290 Joules, slightly higher than the energy it takes to complete one google search (1,080 joules), making it one of the greenest cryptos right now.
Solana became carbon-neutral crypto in 2021 and wants to do the same this year. It has taken one step toward this goal by funding refrigeration destruction – a movement that states that the destruction of refrigerators and air conditioners is better than recycling them for the sake of the environment.
Another step by Solana to become Carbon neutral this year is the partnership with Watershed. There are more developments on the way, and we will likely see more sustainability news by Solana on Twitter.
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Celo (CELO): Blockchain hosting eco-friendly dApps
The last one on our list of CELO, an open-source blockchain with two native tokens, one standard crypto and another a Stablecoin. Designed to be used on smartphones, CELO is one of the most innovative green projects of 2024. It is also compatible with EVM, allowing developers to develop dApps easily.
CELO hasn’t made a lot of rounds in the crypto charts – making it one of the most undervalued tokens this year, considering it is a carbon-negative blockchain
This green initiative started back in 2020 when CELO was first introduced. In 2021, the community behind CELO allocated .5% of the Celo reserve to a carbon-credit asset known as MCO2. Later the same year, CELO became the first crypto to tokenize carbon assets through Climate Collective, a community of Web3 companies working towards a sustainable future for crypto assets.
It offset sits carbon emission through Project Ren. So far, this mobile-first DeFi platform has offset 3,362 tons of Carbon – making one one the greenest cryptos in the market.
It features cross-chain interoperability, phone number mapping, and low gas fees and follows a Proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
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What is a Green Cryptocurrency?
A green cryptocurrency can be defined as any crypto asset with green goals to reach carbon neutrality in some shape or form. These cryptocurrencies consume less energy and contribute to removing or reducing CO2 emissions across the globe.
The concept of “green” crypto emerged as soon as details emerged of Bitcoin’s energy consumption. It put the entire idea of crypto mining under scrutiny as reports started to appear that BTC consumes as much energy as a small country.
That led to the emergence of Proof-of-Stake cryptos that, instead, focused on minting, not mining. Now, we have seen the emergence of many other consensus mechanisms that have fine-tuned proof of stake and have become something new.
That said, adopting a mechanism is not enough. As you can see from the list, most of the green cryptos we have listed have gone one step further to reduce their carbon footprint. They are buying and retiring carbon credits to offset their emissions for the environment’s sake. Projects such as Bitcoin Minetrix and Bitgreen have gone one step further and are using the funds to motivate people to make greener choices actively.
Simply put, green cryptocurrency has realized the costs of minting and mining and is trying to do everything it can to put get its carbon emissions under control.
What is the importance of Green Crypto?
Global warming is a rising concern, and every industry is doing its part to reduce C02 emissions. The crypto ecosystem, one of the major energy consumers in tech sectors, needs to take a greener approach for the following reasons.
ESG-Friendly Face attracts Investors
Most venture capitalists have gone environmentally conscious, so much so that they are doing everything they can to stop others from stopping the environment. For instance, Bill Gates, the ex-Chair of Microsoft, has bought 270,000 acres of farmland in America to focus on Agri-tech to make veganism more accessible to the world.
Investors like him are focusing on green cryptocurrencies to buy. And the presence of such crypto assets has continued to attract their interest.
Slowing Down the Progress of Global Warming
Global warming is growing at a rapid pace. NASA reports say that the oceans are getting warmer, and glacial meltdowns are common. CO2, being the primary reason behind global warming, needs to be reduced.
That’s where the carbon credits and carbon-negative crypto projects come in. They are working towards reducing CO2 emissions by adopting a low-energy consumption technology and buying carbon credits.
Greenest Cryptos are Regarded Highly
Mainstream media loves to talk about projects that can have a positive impact on the world. And green cryptos are one of them. The media has the power to change people’s perceptions about a certain asset. If that perception is positive, the crypto has the potential to grow; if it is negative, it might not see the light of day.
The power of media can be seen looking at the negative reception Bitcoin has started to get. While many are still behind the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, others are dumping it, which might be one of the main reasons Bitcoin finds it hard to stay above the $20k level.
Long story short, green crypto gets positive media attention which can direct the crowd’s attention which then leads to positive speculation. Cryptocurrency is a speculative asset and can increase in value if the talks going on about it are positive.
Better Use-Cases for cryptocurrencies
The bear market was a wake-up call for many, and the world started clamoring for better use cases for their cryptocurrencies.
Many investors and traders are no longer satisfied with associating with a project just because of its marketability; they want it to have utility.
How to Find the Greenest Cryptos
Green cryptos are the hottest cryptos to invest in now, not just for the environment. The interest of the crypto crowd and the venture capitalists are prepping some cryptos to make big gains in the future. However, you must find the right crypto to invest in at the right time to maximize your profits. Here are the well-known strategies to use to find green cryptos.
Use Social Media
From Reddit to Tiktok, there is no space where you won’t hear anything about cryptocurrencies. Many of these places are now talking about cryptocurrencies that focus on sustainability. Such projects often get the most views and the most engagement. So, search for green crypto assets online across social media platforms.
Crypto YouTubers are one useful source of information. Below is Jacob Crypto Bury covering the greenest cryptocurrency tokens to buy today:
Watch out for Major Upgrades in your Favourite Crypto assets
Even if some cryptos are not green right now, they are adopting greener protocols and strategies to take a more sustainable route. The recent was Ethereum’s merge upgrade. People found out about it first on Twitter. Therefore, keep an eye on the upgrades to learn about the cryptocurrencies you want as your next investment.
Keep a Sharp-eye on Roadmaps and Whitepapers
Roadmaps and whitepapers tell you everything you need to know about the future of a particular asset. Read them closely, and you will find how far the developers are willing to take the crypto assets. Focus on energy consumption and other terms to check their consensus mechanisms and energy consumption. The more you read, the more you will get an idea about the project’s impact on the environment and help you discern the greenest cryptos among them.
Keep Tabs on the Latest Tech in the Blockchain Sector
Blockchain, as a whole, is now adopting greener technologies. Newer crypto assets are proof of that. Therefore, it is necessary to keep tabs on the developments within the blockchain industry and see how far it has come as far as the environment is concerned.
Greenest Cryptos to Invest In – Conclusion
You now have an in-depth look into the greenest cryptos that have taken an environmentally conscious stance towards their technology and are working everything in their power to reduce the C02 emissions in the environment.
For those looking to buy the listed Cryptos, eToro is the best platform. It has upwards of 28 million customers and is a social trading platform where you can supplement your gains by following the strategies of better traders.
Update – As of 2024, the only cryptocurrencies eToro users in the United States will be able to trade on the platform will be Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is any crypto green?
Yes, many cryptocurrencies have adopted a greener consensus mechanism known as proof of stake. Others have gone further to reduce their energy consumption. And some have started buying carbon credits to offset their C02 emissions.
Which is the greenest crypto right now?
The greenest crypto to buy right now is Chia. The project brings a uniqueness of proof-of-spacetime to the crypto space.
