Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Resume Bitcoin Transactions After Due Diligence
Highlights
- Elon Musk has revealed that Tesla will soon start using Bitcoin again
- Tesla had banned the use of Bitcoin because of its environmental impact
- Musk also revealed that SpaceX had also invested in Bitcoin
Elon Musk famously lobbied for the use of cryptocurrencies and enabled Bitcoin transactions for Tesla. But a couple of months later they controversially started pushing dogecoin and banned the use of bitcoin claiming that it was bad for the environment because of the excessive GPU use for crypto mining. But now he has come out and said that most likely Tesla will resume the use of bitcoin transactions after due diligence for its environmental impact.
"I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50%, and that there is a trend toward increasing that number, and if so Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin. Most likely the answer is that Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin," he said at the B Word conference.
This is a U-turn from Tesla banning the use of Bitcoin. "Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," said at the time.
This angered people because it caused massive fluctuation in the valuation of bitcoin. Musk's approval of bitcoin increased its value and then when Tesla dropped it, its value went down. Instead, Musk started pushing dogecoin.
But clarifying his stance, Musk revealed that Tesla and even SpaceX had invested in bitcoin. He also revealed that he personally owned more bitcoin, than ethereum and dogecoin. He said when bitcoin's value dropped it impacted him negatively from a financial point of view.
Last Updated on July 22, 2021