In March of 2021, Elon Musk announced on Twitter that people could buy a Tesla with Bitcoin. Yesterday, Elon Musk changed his mind about that.
Elon Musk tweeted “Tesla & Bitcoin”, and included a screenshot of a statement:
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…
The statement continued: “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.”
The Verge reported that Bitcoin uses up as much electricity as the Netherlands. CNBC reported in March that researchers at the University of Cambridge found that Bitcoin uses more electricity on an annual basis than the whole of Argentina.
According to a recent article on CNBC, when Elon Musk made his announcement, the value of the whole cryptocurrency market stood at around $2.43 trillion (according to data from coinmarketcap.com). A few hours later, the market capitalization had dropped to around $2.06 trillion “wiping off around $365.85 billion”.
Personally, I think it is a very good thing that Tesla stopped selling vehicles for Bitcoin. There are other companies that make electric vehicles that a person can purchase for more conventional currency (such as the U.S.dollar). Bitcoin is terrible for the environment, and I am happy that Tesla is no longer accepting it.