Elon Musk made huge waves just a few months ago as he announced that Tesla would be buying over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin. Around the same time, he announced that Tesla would start accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for its cars. Since that time, Elon has championed cryptocurrencies although now, he seems to be changing his tune.
Last night, Musk tweeted that he is worried about the harm Bitcoin is doing to the environment and that effective immediately, Tesla would no longer take Bitcoin as a payment. This led to a huge panic sell from investors, bringing the price of Bitcoin from $55K USD to $50K USD.
“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. “Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment.”
The environmental concerns related to cryptocurrency have been well-documented over the last few weeks. Crypto enthusiasts are adamant that most of the energy used is renewable, while others argue that it is doing irreparable harm to the planet. Either way, Bitcoin investors are furious with Musk right now, and they are starting to ponder whether or not it’s normal that one man can sway the market in such a significant way.
