Bitcoin Can Now Get You a Tesla Car Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla, on Twitter announced that the option to pay via Bitcoin, available in the US, will be available in other countries by the end of the year
By Debarghya Sil •
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People across the world on Thursday woke up to find electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has incorporated a new payment option which will allow users to purchase electric vehicles via the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. The option is currently available only in its biggest market, i.e., the US. However, Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla, later on Twitter announced that the option to pay via Bitcoin will soon be available in other countries by the end of the year.
Musk who has been quite vocal in support of cryptocurrencies had earlier indicated about Bitcoin being a mode of payment. Musk, who enjoys immense popularity on Twitter with $49.5 million followers, has time and again moved the market with his decisions. It is reported that once he incorporated Bitcoin in his Twitter bio, it resulted in a sharp price increase of $6,000 from $32,000 in an hour. It is through his tweet, a lot of people heard first about Dogecoin, an unpopular cryptocurrency which was the result of a joke.
The biggest leg-up Bitcoin received was when Tesla invested $1.5 billion in February and expressed its intention to start using it as a mode of payment. Post the news, Musk took to Twitter to share that Tesla's action doesn't reflect his own opinion. However, he continued to say "Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company."
Further defending his company's decision, he wrote, "However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn't look elsewhere. Bitcoin is almost as bad as fiat money. The key word is "almost".
After this tweet, Bitcoin value skyrocketed to $53,263 from $51,284.
Tesla's market value soared to over $800 billion in the 12 months leading up to January, before dropping to a little less than $600 billion in February. The company's valuation now stands at around $635 billion. Tesla which is considered to have created its own market i.e., electric vehicles now dominate the segment with 18 per cent of the global EV sales. Its closest competitor Volkswagen, holds a mere 6 per cent market share.
Tesla is gearing up to enter the Indian market and is in talks to open up its manufacturing hub in Bengaluru. Post the latest announcement, it will be interesting to watch how Tesla will try to bring enthusiasm about cryptocurrency in India, where the government is mulling to ban cryptocurrency.
