Elon Musk Attempts to Win Back the Love of Bitcoin Community

The price of Bitcoin increased by around four percent on Monday after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he was in discussions with North American Bitcoin miners about the environmental sustainability of the cryptocurrency.

CNBC reports that the price of Bitcoin increased by around four percent on Monday afternoon after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he was in discussions relating to the sustainability of the digital coin with North American Bitcoin miners.

The price of Bitcoin settled around $38,074 when at 3:42 p.m. EST Musk posted on Twitter: “Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.”

Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2021

Minutes later, the price of the coin shot up to over $39,500. Bitcoin is now up more than 17 percent in the last 24 hours.

Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy, stated that he hosted a meeting between Musk and some Bitcoin miners that led to the formation of the Bitcoin Mining Council, which aims to promote sustainability in the crypto sector.

Musk has been a supporter of cryptocurrencies for some time, helping to increase the prices of digital coins such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin multiple times this year. Musk’s comments about cryptocurrency tend to have a direct effect on the price of various currencies. His legion of Bitcoin fans largely turned on him this month after he suddenly attacked the energy usage and alleged environmental problems of Bitcoin mining.

Breitbart News recently reported that a new cryptocurrency called $STOPELON has joined the digital market in a direct shot towards Musk.

This market volatility created by just one celebrity’s tweets is what encouraged $STOPELON’s creators to launch their cryptocurrency. In the words of the cryptocurency’s creators, “Elon Musk is infamous for irresponsibly manipulating the cryptocurrency market with his Twitter account.”

Their website states that they decided to create “a community […] to destroy the biggest market manipulator of them all.” Creators have been doing giveaways of the currency on Twitter recently.

Musk’s Twitter posts previously sent Bitcoin skyrocketing after he announced that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as payment for vehicles. But just a short while later, Musk tweeted that Tesla would no longer be accepting Bitcoin as payment, citing environmental concerns related to the energy usage of the cryptocurrency.

“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,” Musk stated at the time. Tesla is currently holding more than a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin, which it doesn’t plan to spend yet, with Musk stating that it will be used for transactions “as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.” Tesla is also “looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”

The reaction to this from Bitcoin and cryptocurrency fans was almost immediate. This had a huge effect on the cryptocurrency for two reasons, one being that it was a very public betrayal from a popular mainstream figure that many felt gave legitimacy to cryptocurrency.

Musk has also stated his opinion on the controversy surrounding the carbon footprint of Bitcoin. Bitcoin does indeed have a large carbon footprint, as does anything that uses electricity, such as computers or even Musk’s electric cars, but Bitcoin users have pointed out that for technical reasons, Bitcoin’s energy usage cannot be quantified in “energy use per transaction” calculations as Musk did.

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