Elon Musk said on Sunday that Tesla would again accept Bitcoin payments when the virtual currency was less polluting.
The CEO of the American manufacturer announced the news on Twitter.
“When it is confirmed that [Bitcoin] miners are using a reasonable amount of clean energy (around 50%) with an improving trend, Tesla will resume authorizing [these] transactions,” the multi-billionaire wrote.
In February, Tesla caused a sensation by announcing that its customers could pay in cryptocurrency as early as March 2021.
This is inaccurate.
Tesla only sold ~ 10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market.
When there's confirmation of reasonable (~ 50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2021
Bitcoins produced from coal
Elon Musk then did an about-face, indicating that bitcoins were no longer accepted for environmental concerns. This virtual currency is in fact produced by powerful computers which consume enormous amounts of electricity.
Bitcoin mines in China, which power nearly 80% of global trade and run in part from coal-fired power plants, risk jeopardizing the country's climate goals,
according to a study published in
Nature
.
Elon Musk reacted this Sunday to an article discussing the fact that movements in the value of Bitcoin according to the businessman's tweets allowed him to manipulate market prices for the benefit of his company.
"This is incorrect," retorted Elon Musk.
“Tesla only sold about 10% of its bitcoin to confirm that they could be sold easily without moving the market,” he added.
In early February, Tesla announced that it had invested $ 1.5 billion of its ample cash in bitcoins, and has since sold part of it.
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