American electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has stated that the carmaker will resume allowing bitcoin transactions when miners who verify transactions use more renewable energy.
“When there’s confirmation of reasonable (50 percent) clean energy usage by miners with the positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions,” Mr. Musk said in a tweet.
In light of the Tesla CEO’s tweet, bitcoin gained as much as 9.3 percent to $39,372 on the last day, the highest level since June 3 and just below the $40,000 round-number level seen as key by some chart watchers.
“The tweet added to positive momentum as Elon’s stance seems to be moderating and providing a target that’s not far away. The rally was already underway as the market speculates about an imminent purchase from MicroStrategy and the G7 comments on crypto were neutral, even optimistic, about digital innovation,” said Jonathan Cheesman, head of over-the-counter and institutional sales at crypto derivatives exchange FTX.
Earlier this year, Tesla announced it had bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin and signaled its intent to start accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for vehicles. In March, Mr. Musk tweeted, “you can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin.” The carmaker also sold about 10 percent of its holdings to confirm bitcoin could be liquidated easily without moving the market.
But last month Mr. Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company’s position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10 percent after his tweet.
The Tesla CEO said that he believed cryptocurrency has a promising future, but it cannot be at a great cost to the environment.
