Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk on Thursday denounced the insane amount of energy used to produce bitcoin, doubling down on his sudden rejection of the cryptocurrency as a means of payment over. | May 13, 2021
Elon Musk Decries Insane Bitcoin Energy Use After Tesla Payment U-Turn Elon Musk Decries Insane Bitcoin Energy Use After Tesla Payment U-Turn Musk, one of bitcoin s most ardent backers, tweeted a graph of bitcoin s power consumption and said: Energy usage trend over past few months is insane.
Tesla would no longer accept the cryptocurrency as payment for its electric cars, Elon Musk said. (File)
Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk on Thursday denounced the insane amount of energy used to produce bitcoin, doubling down on his sudden rejection of the cryptocurrency as a means of payment over environmental concerns.
Musk, one of bitcoin s most ardent backers, tweeted a graph of bitcoin s power consumption and said: Energy usage trend over past few months is insane.
(Reuters) â Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk denounced the âinsaneâ amount of energy used to produce bitcoin on Thursday, doubling down on his sudden rejection of the cryptocurrency as a means of payment over environmental concerns.
Bitcoin fell more than 10% after Musk, one of its most famous backers, tweeted his decision to suspend its use, less than two months after Tesla began accepting it as payment for its electric cars. Other cryptocurrencies, including ethereum, also fell before regaining some ground in Asian trade. 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, Musk tweeted on Wednesday.
Tesla has suspended the use of bitcoin to purchase its vehicles because of climate concerns, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet on Wednesday, reversing the company’s stance in the face of an outcry from some environmentalists and investors. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest digital currency, fell more than 7 per cent after the tweet and was trading at $52,669.
Tesla revealed in February it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would soon accept it as payment for cars, driving a roughly 20 per cent surge in the world’s most widely held cryptocurrency. Musk on Wednesday said Tesla would not sell any bitcoin, and intends to use bitcoin for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.