The American electric car company Tesla has suspended the use of Bitcoin for the purchase of cars it produces due to the use of fossil fuels for mining cryptocurrency, said CEO of the company Elon Musk. Bitcoin fell 15% to $46,800.
“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. 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. Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.
“Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction,” wrote tweeted Elon Musk.
In February, Tesla became the first car company in the world to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for its vehicles.
On 11th May, Elon wanted to know if from the people if his company should start accepting Dogecoin too. Last Sunday Doge lost over one-third of its price following Elon’s comments on Saturday Night Live (SNL) where he, in one of the show’s segments said the virtual currency was a ‘hustle’. The same day he tweeted “SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year. Mission paid for in Doge. 1st crypto in space.”
Tesla had previously bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency, dubbed “One Coin to Rule Them All” by Elon Musk, a reference to the “Lord of the Rings” saga.