Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in a tweet that electric car makers will no longer accept cryptocurrency Bitcoin to buy their cars. Musk cites environmental concerns related to Bitcoin’s “mining” production method, which requires energy-intensive computing power.
Currently, the industry uses 149.6 terawatt-hours of energy, which is slightly less than the energy used by the entire population of Egypt. The statement tweet reads, “Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about the rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but it can’t spend too much on the environment. Tesla will not sell any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as mining becomes a more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use 1% of Bitcoin’s power / transactions. The announcement led to a 13 percent crash for cryptocurrencies and a sharp drop in Tesla shares.
The move comes as Musk has long been a Bitcoin advocate, with Tesla releasing it back at an SEC in February, and buying Bitcoins worth 1.5 billion in January, changing his Twitter bio to #Bitcoin. In March, he announced that “you can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin”, adding that the Bitcoin given to Tesla would be retained as Bitcoin and not converted into dollars. The move comes three days after Musk announced the Dodge-1 mission to the moon, the first space mission given to Dogecoins, another champion cryptocurrency. It’s not clear if it’s still on the cards. He called the coin a nuisance during his coverage as a Saturday night host on May 8th.
The move comes three days after Musk announced the Dodge-1 mission to the moon, the first space mission given to Dogecoins, another champion cryptocurrency. It’s not clear if it’s still on the cards. He called the coin a nuisance during his coverage as a Saturday night host on May 8th.
