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Why Tesla Stopped Accepting Bitcoin For Cars
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that the automaker would no longer accept bitcoin for payment for its cars. He cited environmental reasons.
Tesla had begun accepting the cryptocurrency just a few weeks prior, posting a long list of instructions and warnings about paying for cars with the cryptocurrency.
The company also indicated earlier this year that it had sold about a hundred million dollars worth of the cryptocurrency, but not the majority of its bitcoin holdings.
“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,” he added.
Predictably, bitcoin values tumbled in the hours after Musk’s Twitter post, with the currency dropping some 12% by late Wednesday evening.
The move drew a mix of reactions from industry observers and cryptocurrency investors, with many pointing out that bitcoin’s high energy usage—reportedly dwarfing that some fairly large countries—was well publicized even before Tesla bought any of the cryptocurrency or had decided to accept it for its cars. Many also pointed out that Elon Musk had hyped bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies on Twitter, and showed little to no concern for bitcoin’s environmental impact until the middle of this week to take any adverse action.
“He wasn’t concerned about it before and it’s not like there will suddenly be other sources of energy, like solar, that will supply the power overnight. So this is a pointless move for a lot of people as well as Tesla which bought so much of it,” one cryptocurrency trader said.
“This doesn’t help anyone, and I think a lot of people will feel they were let down. I think it shows people that he’s not treating this seriously.”
