The big push happened right after the crypto crash. I have a suspicion both are pushed by energy companies. If power consumption goes down, we start switching to renewables and stop consuming dirty sources. They can't have that, so they pushed crypto to consume it. They let it crash because they started pushing "AI" instead. Politicians always say we can't decrease power consumption, and we just need to build up to replace dirty energy sometimes in the non-specified future. We will never reach that if they can instead keep creating excuses to expand demand.