The global cryptocurrency market: empirical evidence and reflections on the green transition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62911/ete.2025.03.02.03Keywords:
cryptocurrencies, global financial market, blockchain, green transition, sustainable development, Bitcoin energy consumption, green tokens, decarbonization, EWT, S&P 500, USDXAbstract
The article presents an empirical study of the global cryptocurrency market in the context of its evolution under the influence of macroeconomic, technological and geopolitical factors, as well as the broader framework of the global green transition. By analyzing market dynamics across several critical periods, including the pre COVID crisis phase, the COVID 19 pandemic, the full scale russian invasion of Ukraine and the most recent stage of partial recovery, the study characterizes the structural features of cryptocurrency volatility in comparison with traditional financial instruments, particularly the S&P 500 and USDX indices. The empirical component of the methodology is based on open access datasets from CoinMarketCap, TradingView and Investing.com, which enables a comparative assessment of cryptocurrency trends and stock market movements. The findings demonstrate that cryptocurrency markets remain highly sensitive to news flows, regulatory decisions and speculative activity by large investors, which complicates the application of conventional fundamental analysis methods. Special attention is devoted to the environmental dimension of crypto industry development. The high energy consumption of Bitcoin is identified as a major barrier to integrating blockchain technologies into sustainability oriented economic frameworks. The study also examines the potential of environmentally oriented tokens, most notably the Energy Web Token, which is positioned as a tool for supporting decarbonization processes in energy markets but continues to exhibit weak price performance and limited investor demand in comparison with green energy indices. The comparative analysis reveals a substantial gap between the conceptual value of green tokens and their actual market perception. Overall, the results confirm that despite the continuing expansion of the emergence of new technological solutions, the integration of cryptoassets into the green transition remains fragmented. Meaningful advancement in this direction requires clearer regulatory frameworks, technological improvements and stronger alignment between blockchain applications and measurable environmental outcomes.
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