Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a major proponent of cryptocurrency, has announced that the company will no longer accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for its cars citing Bitcoin mining’s “great cost to the environment.”
CNBC reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday that the company has “suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin,” out of worries related to the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining.”
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
The price of Bitcoin dropped by around five percent following Musk’s announcement. In a February SEC filing, Tesla revealed that it purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and may invest in other cryptocurrencies in the future.
Musk’s discussion of cryptocurrencies has boosted the value of multiple coins, including Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Musk’s tweet reads: “Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing 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 this cannot come at great cost to the environment. Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”
Musk has been a public fan of both Bitcoin and Dogecoin and many expected his appearance on Saturday Night Live last week to boost the value of the digital assets. However, during a segment on the show in which Musk joked about Dogecoin being a “hustle,” the price of Dogecoin plummeted. There was a slight increase in the coin’s value during SNL’s “Weekend Update” parody news section in which Musk explained to a confused Michael Che and Colin Jost what Dogecoin was.
Many were quick to criticize Musk’s decision to no longer accept Bitcoin at Tesla. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said that the team will continue to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment as “we know that replacing Gold as a store of value will help the environment.”
We at https://t.co/VUydpLFzGh will continue to accept BTC/Eth/Doge because we know that replacing Gold as a store of value will help the environment https://t.co/bs7NvnJY8A and https://t.co/ELhbuLOBRV shrinking big bank and coin usage will benefit society and the environment https://t.co/zu08F0STEQ
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 12, 2021
As of the time of the writing of this article, #DontBuyTesla is trending in the United States with many criticizing Musk for the move.
The biggest manipulative bastard in the world he is pretending as if he doesn’t know bitcoin’s energy consumption earlier #dontbuytesla pic.twitter.com/HzezrvBLh1
— Liquidulas (@liquidulas) May 13, 2021
#dontbuytesla not because of the BitCoin thing though pic.twitter.com/sZj9NNYuaz
— Orson Zedd (@Orson_Zedd) May 13, 2021
#dontbuytesla Pull people first, then fool them and take their money out of their pockets. nice game @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/ZK8uhB1SeN
— Burak Erdoğan (@farkolmalibazen) May 13, 2021
"Your honor, it wasn't my intention to manipulate the market" #dontbuytesla @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/xplRO84SNi
— Steem●VeChain●Crypt$VET (@SteamyCrypts) May 13, 2021
Breitbart News will continue to report on Elon Musk and Tesla.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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