Elon Musk Says Tesla Will No Longer Accept Bitcoin Due to Environmental Concerns
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Bitcoin saw a massive drop in valuation on Wednesday after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the electronic car company would no longer accept the cryptocurrency as payment.
Musk made a statement via Twitter about how his company was “concerned” about Bitcoin’s environmental practices.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
“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,” Musk said.
Bitcoin dropped 14 percent on Wednesday night before rising slightly early this morning; it's still down 11 percent.
Musk praised the concept of crypto and called it a “good idea” but warned that it “cannot come at great cost to the environment.”
Tesla announced in February that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and said the company planned to accept it for transactions. In March, the company began to accept the cryptocurrency as payment.
