Mt. Gox once handled 80 percent of the world's bitcoin trades but filed for bankruptcy in 2014.

A Tokyo court on Friday handed the founder of the now-defunct Mt. Gox bitcoin currency exchange a 2-1/2-year suspended sentence for his role in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and cash, Kyodo news agency reported.

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is known for its energy footprint. Now, a researcher suggests that renewable hydropower production cannot supply the large quantities of energy needed to power machinery used to validate Bitcoin transactions.

Producing a single bitcoin now costs $4060 on average, but it is currently valued at less than $3500