Bitcoin, a major cryptocurrency, has exploded in value this year, but its volatility has been twofold. The trading price per unit of bitcoin plummeted from about $64,800 last week to just under $48,000 earlier today, April 23.

Reuters reported that at least part of the drop was due to U.S. President Joe Biden's new tax plan. It reportedly includes an intention to significantly raise capital gains taxes on those earning over $1 million, which appears to have sparked widespread crypto selling as wealthy investors sought to dispose of risky assets. [In addition to Bitcoin, Ethereum, known in some tech hardware circles for being the target of the ill-fated Nvidia RTX 3060 mining limiter, also plunged. Ethereum fell from a record high of $2,600 to $2,100 following reports of Biden's tax plan. [At the time of this writing, both digital currencies appear to be on the rise, with Bitcoin at $49,500 and Ethereum at $2,200, but these declines will not convince blockchain skeptics that cryptocurrencies can serve as a reliable everyday currency rather than as an investment opportunity It is unlikely to do so. Bitcoin has been plunging considerably since February, when it fell from about $57,000 to $45,000.

Biden's reported increase in the capital gains tax does not appear to be specifically targeted at digital currencies, but digital currencies have recently been the subject of a lot of concern about crypto-laundering among U.S. financial institutions and the very energy-intensive process of mining digital currencies. particularly scrutinized because of both concerns about how the earth will be impacted by the highly energy-intensive process.

Recently, a new cryptocurrency, Chia, was announced that aims to consume less power than Bitcoin or Ethereum. However, this could pose a new problem: since "farming" Chia requires large amounts of hard drive and SSD storage space, Chinese farming hopefuls are already buying up large amounts of inventory, much like Bitcoin and Ethereum miners buying graphics This is similar to the large purchases of cards.